Isabel Allende

Selected Biography 1942: Born in Lima, Peru 1945: mother moves family moves to her native Chile 1962: marries (eventually has two children) 1967: begins writing for feminist and children’s journals in Chile 1970: Salvador Allende elected president of Chile 1972: 1st play El Ambajador performed in Chile 1972: President Allende overthrown and killed in a military coup

Selected Biography (cont) 1975: Moves to Venezuela for 13 years 1982: HOTS is published 1987: divorces 1st husband 1988: re-marries with a man from the US. Moves to San Francisco 1990: Democracy reinstated in Chile. Author returns for first visit in 15 years 1992: daughter dies after long term coma, letter to her becomes the book Paula 2006: Winter Olympics flag bearer for Latin America in Italy

The genesis “This is my grandfather, Agustin Llona Cuevas. He was almost one hundred years when he died. My first book (House of the Spirits) began as a letter to this beloved old man.” (Allende)

The inspiration “My clairvoyant grandmother Isabel Barros Moreira. She died when I was very young, but her spirit has always accompanied me.” (Allende)

On language “I can only write fiction in Spanish, because it is for me a very organic process that I can only do in my language. Fortunately I have excellent translators all over the world.”

On other writers “I belong to the first generation of Latin American writers brought up reading other Latin American writers. Before my time our writers' work was not well distributed in our continent. Therefore, in Chile it was very hard to read other writers from Latin America. My greatest influences have been all the great writers of the Latin American boom of literature.”

On magic realism “It's strange that my work has been classified as magic realism because I see my novels as just being realistic literature… When you allow dreams, visions and premonitions to enter into your everyday life and your work as a writer, reality seems to expand.”

On her writing rituals “On January 8, 1981, I was living in Venezuela and I received a phone call that my beloved grandfather was dying. I began a letter for him that later became my first novel, The House of The Spirits. It was such a lucky book from the very beginning, that I kept that lucky date to start.”

On writing “Writing is like training to be an athlete. There is a lot of training and work that nobody sees in order to compete. The writer needs to write every day, just as the athlete needs to train. Much of the writing will never be used, but it is essential to do it.”

Bibliography Allende, Isabel. http://isabelallende.com