Adolfo CASTAÑÓN

(Mexico City, 1952). He studied literature and philosophy at the autonomous university UNAM and was then engaged in literary research at the Institute for Philology. Since 1975 he has worked for the Mexican publisher Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE), which he headed from 1985 to 2000. From 1992 to 1997, in cooperation with UNESCO, he directed the project »Periolibros« to publish the poetic and literary masterpieces of modern Iberoamerican writing. He has worked as the editorial advisor on 12 Latin American cultural and literary magazines. Adolfo Castañón is also a prolific and gifted writer whose work includes stories, essays, poetry and translations from both English (George Steiner) and French (Jean-Jacques Rousseau) as well as literary criticism. His love of transgression has led him to work with various literary genres like the fable, portrait, parable, legend, fragment and prose poem. His outstanding poetry collections include »La batalla perdurable« (1996, t: The Permanent Fight), as well as »Tránsito de Octavio Paz/The Passing of Octavio Paz (1914-1998)«. He has recently published his collected poetry »La campana y el tiempo«. »Por el país de Montaigne« (t: Through Montaigne’s Country) is the name of his new book of essays, which was reprinted five times between 1995 and 2000.