Original version

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

In the Studio

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Inside the brains of the world’s most creative people

In the Studio takes us into the minds and processes of leading and emerging figures from across the creative world.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

In the Studio: Juan Gabriel Vásquez: Literature in the centre of my life

Magazines & Reviews

Juan Gabriel Vásquez: Literature in the centre of my life

29/09/2020 GMT

BBC World Service - In the Studio, Juan Gabriel Vásquez: Literature in the centre of my life

The acclaimed Colombian writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez creates his new novel.

Noise-cancelling headphones, trying out different voices and the city of Bogotá – all part of  writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s creative process as he begins his new novel.

The Colombian novelist and journalist Juan Gabriel Vásquez is widely regarded as one of the most important Latin American writers today – known for his novels published in 28 languages, including the award-winning The Sound Of Things Falling, The Shape of the Ruins, and five other works of fiction, plus stories, literary essays, and political commentary.

Born outside the capital city of Bogotá and having lived there as a student, Vásquez says it's a place that helped shaped his creative life and consciousness as a writer. After 16 years in Paris and Spain, he returned to Colombia to live and write.  Now, as he embarks on his latest novel due to be published in December,  Natalia Guerrero talks to Vasquez in Bogotá to find out how he works on his books. 

As he writes he describes his creative process from thought to page and start to finish. We hear how Bogotá has influenced his writing as "a life calling" with "literature in the centre of my life"; and how he keeps to a daily writing routine – including wearing noise-cancelling headphones so that he can have the silence he needs to create his work. 
 
And there are the very intimate moments of writing the final words and sharing his new book with its very first reader - his wife.
 
Reporter: Natalia Guerrero
Producers: Natalia Guerrero, Emma Wallace and Emma Kingsley for BBC World Service


Photograph of Juan Gabriel Vásquez by Diana Matar

Accessibility links

Programme Index

In the Studio

Juan Gabriel Vásquez: Literature in the centre of my life

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

About BBC World Service