Jorge Luis Borges

My hero is Jorge Luis Borges. He was an Argentine writer who has spent more than 40 years writing poems, tales, essays and novels. In his writing Borges created a fantastic, totally subjective, and deeply metaphysical world. Describing his work, Borges wrote, “I am neither a thinker nor a moralist, but simply a man of letters who turns his own perplexities and that respected system of perplexities we call philosophy into the forms of literature.”

He was born in Buenos Aires, in 1914, but he was educated in Geneva, Switzerland, and lived briefly in Spain. In 1921 he returned to Argentina, where he helped found several literary and philosophical periodicals and wrote lyrical poetry on historical Argentine themes. His collections included Fervor de Buenos Aires (Fervor of Buenos Aires, 1923), Luna de enfrente (The Moon Opposite, 1925), and Cuarderno San Martín (San Martin Notebook, 1929).

Borges gradually lost his sight, due to a hereditary condition. Nevertheless, he worked at the National Library from 1938 to 1947 and served as its director from 1955 to 1973. He also taught English at the University of Buenos Aires. During these years Borges turned from poetry to the short narrative fiction for which he is now famous. Ficciones (1945) is perhaps his most important collection of short stories. Others are El Aleph (1949), El libro de arena (1955), El hacedor (1960), El libro de los seres imaginarios (1967), and El informe de Brodie (1970). Labyrinths (1962) is a collection of stories and other writings. Borges also wrote philosophical and literary essays such as those in Otras inquisiciones (1952; Other Inquisitions, 1964).

His work was translated and published widely in the United States and in Europe but, despite being a distinguished author, he was never awarded the Nobel Prize.

The things I love from Borges are the new worlds and ideas he has helped discover through his writing. His poetry is very passionate and his soul is a wonderful place where you can get lost. If I could be any writer, I would be him.