The Library of Congress will present its Living Legend award to Mario Vargas Llosa, the renowned Peruvian novelist, journalist, public intellectual and political commentator, at the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium, 10 First St. SE, Washington, D.C on Monday, April 11 at 6:30 p.m..
The evening award ceremony will include tributes from Peruvian Ambassador Luis Miguel Castilla and Acting Librarian of Congress David S. Mao. Vargas Llosa will appear in an interview conducted by Marie Arana, who holds a distinguished chair at the John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress. The Living Legend Award honors those who have made significant contributions to America’s diverse cultural, scientific and social heritage. "Mario Vargas Llosa has brought to life the history and character of the Latin American people in memorable literature that has been translated into many languages around the world," Mao said. "The Library of Congress is proud to honor him and his work."
Mario Vargas Llosa was born in Arequipa, Peru on March 28, 1936. He is one of Latin America’s most prominent writers, and one of the authors in the forefront of the literary movement of the 1960s known as the Latin American Boom. In the words of literary scholar Randolph D. Pope, Mario Vargas Llosa "can tell a story and create a world with the apparent ease of a 19th-century master. He holds the attention of the reader and fires the imagination as Balzac, Dumas, or Victor Hugo did in their time."
