Nona Fernández

Patricia Paola Fernández Silanes (born 23 June 1971), better known as Nona Fernández, is a Chilean actress, author, and screenwriter.[1] She is a recipient of the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize, and the Altazor prize (on many occasions).[2]

Nona Fernández
At FILSA 2018
Born
Patricia Paola Fernández Silanes

(1971-06-23) 23 June 1971
Santiago, Chile
OccupationActress, writer
Notable work
Av. 10 de Julio Huamachuco, La dimensión desconocida
Spouse(s)Marcelo Leonart
Awards

Biography

An only child of a single mother, Nona Fernández grew up in a Matta Avenue neighborhood close to the market Persa Bíobío. There she had her first job, selling second-hand clothes.[3]

Even though her name is the same as her mother's, Patricia Paola, everyone calls her Nona, the name by which she also signs her works. When she was in her first steps, she used to talk little, hardly anything. "All she could say was the monosyllable, sharp, 'no'. Turning this negative into her child's pet word, earning her peculiar nickname Nonito among her family. When she got older, the nickname became Nona.[3]

She attended Santa Cruz School in Santiago and later the Catholic University Theater School.

Later, as an actress, she founded the company Merri Melodys, participated in productions of many theatrical works, and won a competition of the Centro Chileno-Norteamericano de Cultura as the best actress.[4]

In 1995, she participated in a workshop given by Antonio Skármeta, the same year she won the Gabriela Mistral Literary Games. Her stories were first published in various anthologies of contests, and her first book of short stories, El Cielo, was published in 2000. Her award-winning novel Mapocho was published two years later.

Regarding the genesis of that first novel, she states:

I wrote my first novel in a department in Barcelona, staring at Chile from afar, filling pages with wild interpretations of its national history, while my belly grew with a child seeking space. At the same time I gave birth to my son I finished the book. The name of my son is Dante. The book was named Mapocho, like the river that crosses my city, the same one that has moved garbage and corpses since always.[5]

Fernández has been included by some critics in the so-called Literatura de los hijos.

Her husband, Dante's father, is the writer and theatre director Marcelo Leonart, whom she met when they were both studying at the Theatre School. Together they run the company La Fusa.

Nona describes herself with these words: "Actress for fun. Narrator for being a nuisance, trying not to forget what should not be forgotten. Scriptwriter for soap operas because of necessity. An uncomfortable Chilean, and sometimes rabid".[5]

At the Book Festival in Santiago's Plaza de Armas, 2013

Her work as a screenwriter for TV series is for Nona Fernández only a way to make a living. On TVN, she has become the scriptwriter for El laberinto de Alicia. Also, she contributes to the series Los archivos del cardenal, based on the cases defended by the Vicariate of Solidarity during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.[1] She also co-wrote Andrés Waissbluth's film 199 recetas para ser feliz (199 Tips to be Happy) and the documentary La ciudad de los fotógrafos (City of Photographers) by Sebastián Moreno.

She was selected in 2011 along with two other Chileans: Diego Muñoz Valenzuela and Francisco Díaz Klaassen as one of the "25 literary treasures waiting to be discovered", writers "whose talent has been consolidated in their countries, but who are still not well known outside them", by the Guadalajara International Book Fair in celebration of its 25 years of existence.[5][6]

She made her debut as a playwright in 2012, with El taller, a play inspired by Mariana Callejas' literary workshop at her home in Lo Curro, while her husband Michael Townley directed the underground operations of a DINA headquarters.[7] This black comedy performed by Leonart and Fernández's company, La Fusa, premiered in April at the Santiago theater Lastarria 90 and re-shown in August at the Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral.[8] It won the Premio Altazor 2013 in the Theater art category.[9] Her second piece, Liceo de niñas, premiered in 2015 (with this, the company led by Nona and Leonart is now called Pieza Oscura);[10] it is "a fantastic comedy about an overwhelmed science teacher who discovers in his school's laboratory three students who have been hidden since a 1985 taking."[11]

Works
Greetings from the actors at the end of the Liceo de niñas piece (Fernández is seated left), 9 December 2015

Novels
  • 2002: Mapocho, Planeta

A novel that portray, through different symbols and metaphors, Chile’s biography and the role of the Official History as a speech of power on the structuring of an identity at least questionable

  • 2007: Av. 10 de Julio Huamachuco, Uqbar

Work that represent classic children’s fears that most of the time cross the time barrier and continues tormenting until adulthood

  • 2012: Fuenzalida, Mondadori, Santiago

Nona Fernández lead us by the hand through a maze of unbelievable stories that weave together and appears to be telling the reader that is impossible to close the eyes before memories, be them personal or collective

  • 2013: Space invaders, Alquimia, Santiago.

Dreams of a generation turned into nightmares that until today torture them at night. Dreams of children that witnessed Pinochet’s dictatorship

  • 2015: Chilean Electric, Alquimia, Santiago

A novel to understand and explore family history, turning it into an illumination of the "fearsome darkness" that has reigned in the history of Chile with its missing, murdered and hanged men. A novel inspired, at the same time, by wooden horses, a typewriter and the corpse of a president who said, "more passion and more affection"

  • 2016: La dimensión desconocida, Penguin Random House, Santiago

In the middle of the Chilean dictatorship, an anguished man arrives at the offices of an opposition magazine. He is an agent of the secret service. "I want to speak", he says, and a journalist turns on her voice recorder to listen to a testimony that opens the doors to a hitherto unknown dimension

Short stories
  • 2000: El Cielo, Cuarto Propio. Santiago

Seven stories marked by love and redemption or redemption through love. Stories where rules don't exist, everything counts, and everyone counts. What is important is that no one is actually more important. Everyone has a place, a niche, a sky to arrive at

In anthologies
  • 1994: Música ligera (Grijalbo)
  • 1996: Pasión por la música (Lom)
  • 1997: Cuentos extraviados (Alfaguara; with "Blanca")
  • 1998: Queso de cabeza y otros cuentos (with "El Cielo")

Theatrical dramas
  • El taller: released in April 2012; published in the book Bestiario, freakshow temporada 1973/1990, together with Grita (2004, by Marcelo Leonart) and Medusa (2010, by Ximena Carrera): Ceibo Ediciones, Santiago, 2013[12]
  • Liceo de niñas: released on 23 October 2015 by the company Pieza Oscura at the Theater of the Catholic University,[10] with direction by Marcelo Leonart and acting by the author, among others, who plays the role of a mute student.[11] Published by Ediciones Oxímoron in 2016.

Original stories
  • 2011: El Laberinto de Alicia (rewritten in 2014 as the Colombian series El laberinto de Alicia with Tania Cárdenas and Santiago Ardila)
  • 2005: Los treinta (with Marcelo Leonart, Hugo Morales, and Ximena Carrera)
  • 2003: 16 (with Marcelo Leonart)

Adaptations

English translations
  • Space Invaders. Translated by Natasha Wimmer. Minneapolis, MN: Graywolf Press, 2019. ISBN 978-1-64445-007-9

Awards and recognitions
  • 1995: First place of the Gabriela Mistral Literary Games, for the story "Marsellesa"
  • 1996: First prize in the Passion for Music literary contest
  • 1997: Finalist in the Paula magazine story contest, for "Blanca"
  • 1998: Finalist in Paula magazine story contest, for "El Cielo"[4]
  • 2000: Finalist for the Altazor Award in the TV Script category with Aquelarre (ex aequo)[13]
  • 2003: Santiago Municipal Literature Award for Mapocho[14]
  • 2004: Finalist for the Altazor Award in the TV Script category with 16 (ex aequo)[15]
  • 2006: Altazor Award in the TV Script category for Los treinta (ex aequo)[16]
  • 2008: Altazor Award in the TV Script category for Alguien te Mira (ex aequo)[17]
  • 2008: Santiago Municipal Literature Award for Av. 10 de Julio Huamachuco[14]
  • 2010: Finalist for the Altazor Award in the TV Script category with Conde Vrolok (ex aequo)[18]
  • 2010: Finalist for the Altazor Award in the TV Script category with ¿Dónde está Elisa? (ex aequo)[19]
  • 2012: Altazor Award in the TV Script category for Los archivos del cardenal (ex aequo)[1][20]
  • 2013: Altazor Award in the Dramaturgy category for El taller[9]
  • 2016: Award of the National Council of Culture and the Arts for the best novel in the Published Works category for Chilean Electric[21]
  • 2017: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize for La dimensión desconocida[14]
  • 2019: Longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for Translated Literature.[22]

References
  1. Nelmes, Jill; Selbo, Jule, eds. (29 September 2015). "Chile". Women Screenwriters: An International Guide. Springer. p. 879. ISBN 9781137312372. Retrieved 27 January 2018 – via Google Books.
  2. Nelmes, Jill. Chile. p. 879. ISBN 9781137312372.
  3. Núñez, Natalia (2 May 2012). "Nona Fernández, la escritora multifacética" [Nona Fernández, the Multifaceted Writer]. El Mercurio Ya (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  4. Sánchez, Alejandra (29 September 2008). "Nona Fernández: Finalmente Tom se come a Jerry" [Nona Fernández: Finally Tom Eats Jerry]. La Pollera. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  5. "Los 25 secretos mejor guardados de América Latina" [The 25 Best Kept Secrets in Latin America] (in Spanish). Guadalajara International Book Fair. Archived from the original on 26 September 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  6. Sabogal, Winston Manrique (20 September 2011). "25 secretos literarios de Latinoamérica en la FIL" [25 Literary Secrets of Latin America at the FIL]. El País (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  7. Navarrete, Pilar (3 May 2012). "El taller una obra inspirada en Mariana Callejas" [El Taller a Play Inspired by Mariana Callejas]. Paula (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  8. "GAM repone obra sobre el taller de literatura de la Dina" [GAM Restages Play About the DINA Literary Workshop]. La Tercera (in Spanish). 6 August 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  9. "El Taller" (in Spanish). Altazor Award. Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  10. "Hoy se estrena 'Liceo de Niñas' de Nona Fernández en Teatro UC" [Today 'Liceo de Niñas' by Nona Fernández Premieres at the UC Theater] (in Spanish). Radio Bío-Bío. 23 October 2015. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  11. Guerrero, Pedro Pablo (15 November 2015). "Nona Fernández regresa al teatro y a la novela" [Nona Fernández Returns to the Stage and the Novel]. El Mercurio (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  12. Etcheverría, Estefanía (25 May 2013). "Bestiario, una historia teatral del régimen en el teatro y el papel" [Bestiario, a Theatrical History of the Regime On Stage and On Paper]. La Tercera (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  13. "Aquelarre" (in Spanish). Altazor Award. Archived from the original on 31 August 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  14. "La escritora chilena Nona Fernández obtiene en México el Premio Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz" [The Chilean Writer Nona Fernández Gets the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize in Mexico]. El Mostrador (in Spanish). 30 October 2017.
  15. "16" (in Spanish). Altazor Award. Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  16. "Los Treinta" (in Spanish). Altazor Award. Archived from the original on 11 March 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  17. "Alguien te mira" (in Spanish). Altazor Award. Archived from the original on 13 April 2015. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  18. "Conde Vrolok" (in Spanish). Altazor Award. Archived from the original on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  19. "¿Dónde está Elisa?" (in Spanish). Altazor Award. Archived from the original on 23 December 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  20. "Serie 'Los Archivos del Cardenal' arrasó en Premios Altazor 2012" [Series 'Los Archivos del Cardenal' Sweeps the 2012 Altazor Awards]. La Nación (in Spanish). 8 May 2012. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  21. "Consejo de la Cultura da a conocer los ganadores de los Premios Literarios 2016" [Council of Culture Recognizes the Winners of the 2016 Literary Awards] (in Spanish). National Council of Culture and the Arts. 4 November 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  22. "Translated Literature - 70th National Book Awards". National Book Foundation. 17 September 2019. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
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