Editing Nicanor Parra

{{Short description|Chilean poet and physicist (1914–2018)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{family name hatnote|Parra|Sandoval|lang=Spanish}}
{{Expand language|topic=bio|langcode=es|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Nicanor Parra Sandoval
| image = Nicanor Parra (cropped).jpg 
| imagesize = 
| caption = 
| birth_name = Nicanor Segundo Parra Sandoval
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1914|9|5}}
| birth_place = [[San Fabián de Alico]], [[Chile]]
| occupation = Poet
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2018|1|23|1914|9|5|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[La Reina]], Chile
| awards = '''[[Miguel de Cervantes Prize]]''' (2011)
| spouse =
}}

'''Nicanor Segundo Parra Sandoval''' (5 September 1914 – 23 January 2018) was a Chilean physicist and poet. He has been considered one of the most influential Spanish-language Chilean poets of the 20th century. 

Parra described himself as an "[[Anti-poetry|anti-poet]]" on account of his distaste for poetry's pompous pretences. After his recitations, he would say: "''Me retracto de todo lo dicho.''" ("I take back everything I've said.")

==Life==
[[File:Nicanor Parra (c. 1935).jpg|thumb|Parra in 1935]]
Parra, the son of a schoolteacher, was born in 1914 in [[San Fabián de Alico]], near [[Chillán]], in Chile.<ref>{{cite web|title=Nicanor Parra un antipoeta, matemático y físico|url=http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/812957.html|work=EL UNIVERSAL|publisher=EL UNIVERSAL, Compañía Periodística Nacional|access-date=21 June 2012|language=es|date=1 December 2011}}</ref> He came from the artistically prolific [[Parra family]] of performers, musicians, artists, and writers. His sister, [[Violeta Parra]], was a folk singer, as was his brother [[Roberto Parra Sandoval]].

In 1933, he entered the [[Teacher education|Instituto Pedagógico]] of the [[Universidad de Chile (university)|University of Chile]], where he qualified as a teacher of mathematics and physics in 1938, one year after the publication of his first book, ''Cancionero sin Nombre''. After teaching in Chilean secondary schools, in 1943 he enrolled in [[Brown University]] in the United States to study physics. In 1948, he attended [[Oxford University]] to study cosmology.<ref>[http://www.quepasa.cl/articulo/6_425_9.html Los desconocidos años de Nicanor en Oxford], ''Qué Pasa'' (in Spanish), 5 August 2009</ref> He returned to Chile as a professor at the Universidad de Chile in 1952. Parra served as a professor of [[theoretical physics]] at the University of Chile from 1952 to 1991, and was a visiting professor at Louisiana State University, New York University, and Yale University.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.loc.gov/catbird/2018/01/literary-treasures-chilean-poet-nicanor-parra-reading-from-his-work/|title=Literary Treasures: Chilean Poet Nicanor Parra Reading from his Work {{!}} From the Catbird Seat: Poetry & Literature at the Library of Congress|last=Holmes|first=Anne|date=2018-01-23|website=blogs.loc.gov|access-date=2019-05-25}}</ref> He read his poetry in England, France, Russia, Mexico, Cuba, and the United States. He published dozens of books.

As a young man, he was promoted by [[Gabriela Mistral]] and [[Pablo Neruda]]. He came to Mistral's attention when she visited Chillán.  The national anthem was played in her honor, as Latin America's first Nobel laureate;  at its conclusion,  Parra leapt onto the stage and recited a poem he'd written for her the previous night.  Mistral, standing for the anthem, remained standing until Parra finished, and later introduced him to important people in [[Santiago]] as a poet of future global renown. Subsequently, Neruda arranged for Parra's collection ''Poemas y Antipoemas'' to be published in Buenos Aires, in 1954.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Parra |first1=Nicanor |others = Introduction by Frank MacShane|title=Antipoems: New and Selected |date=1985 |publisher=[[New Directions Publishing]] |location=New York |isbn=0811209598 | oclc = 1043466364 |page=x}}</ref>

''Poemas y Antipoemas'' is a classic of Latin American literature, one of the most influential Spanish poetry collections of the twentieth century. It is cited as an inspiration by American Beat writers such as [[Allen Ginsberg]].<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/chilean-poet-nicanor-parra-wins-cervantes-prize-1.988986 | work=CBC News | title=Chilean poet Nicanor Parra wins Cervantes Prize | date=1 December 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Nicanor Parra Havana 1965|url=http://www.allenginsberg.org/index.php?page=nicanor-para-havana-1965|work=Allen Ginsberg Project|access-date=21 June 2012}}</ref>
[[File:Nicanor Parra en 2014.jpg|thumb|Nicanor Parra at the age of 100]]

A fictionalized version of Parra appeared in [[Alejandro Jodorowsky]]'s autobiographical film ''[[Endless Poetry]]'' (2016).

== Death ==
Parra died on 23 January 2018, at 7:00 am, in [[La Reina]] in Santiago, at the age of 103.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/nicanor-parra-chiles-eminent-poet-and-anti-poet-dies-at-103/2018/01/23/debce2aa-0042-11e8-9d31-d72cf78dbeee_story.html|title=Nicanor Parra, Chile's eminent poet and 'anti-poet,' dies at 103|last=Otis|first=John|date=23 January 2018|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=23 January 2018|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286}}</ref>

==Awards==
{{rquote|right|As far I know, only the Mexican poet Mario Santiago has made a lucid reading of his work. We others have only seen a dark meteorite.|[[Roberto Bolaño]] about Nicanor Parra in ''Entre paréntesis''}}
Parra was proposed on four occasions for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.emol.com/noticias/magazine/2012/01/05/520300/bachelet-postula-a-nicanor-parra-al-nobel.html|title = Nicanor Parra va nuevamente tras el Nobel, respaldado por Bachelet|date = 5 January 2012|access-date = 7 September 2014|publisher = Emol.com}}</ref> On 1 December 2011, Parra won the Spanish Ministry of Culture's [[Cervantes Prize]], the most important literary prize in the Spanish-speaking world.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15986344| title=Nicanor Parra awarded Cervantes Prize| work=BBC News| date=1 December 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Rodriguez M.|first=Javier|title=El poeta chileno Nicanor Parra, premio Cervantes|url=http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/poeta/chileno/Nicanor/Parra/premio/Cervantes/elpepucul/20111130elpepucul_10/Tes|access-date=1 December 2011|newspaper=El Pais|date=1 December 2011}}</ref> On 7 June 2012, he won the [[Pablo Neruda Ibero-American Poetry Award]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Nicanor Parra gana Premio de Poesía Pablo Neruda|url=http://www.latercera.com/noticia/cultura/2012/06/1453-465137-9-nicanor-parra-gana-premio-de-poesia-pablo-neruda.shtml|work=Cultura Latercera|publisher=Latercera|access-date=21 June 2012|language=es|date=6 July 2012}}</ref>

==List of works==
* ''Cancionero sin nombre'' (Songbook without a Name), 1937.
* ''Poemas y antipoemas'' (Poems and Antipoems), 1954; Nascimento, 1956; Cátedra, 2005, {{ISBN|978-84-376-0777-1}}
* ''La cueca larga'' (The Long [[Cueca]]), 1958
* ''Versos de salón'' (Parlor Verses), 1962
* ''Manifiesto'' (Manifesto), 1963
* ''Canciones rusas'' (Russian Songs), 1967
* ''Obra gruesa'' (Thick Works), 1969
* ''Los profesores'' (The Teachers), 1971
* ''Artefactos'' (Artifacts), 1972
* ''Sermones y prédicas del Cristo de Elqui'' (Sermons and Teachings of the Christ of Elquí),  1977
* ''Nuevos sermones y prédicas del Cristo de Elqui'' (New Sermons and Teachings of the Christ of Elquí), 1979
* ''El anti-Lázaro'' (The Anti-Lazarus), 1981
* ''Plaza Sésamo'' (Sesame Street), 1981
* ''Poema y antipoema de Eduardo Frei'' (Poem and Antipoem of Eduardo Frei), 1982
* ''Cachureos, ecopoemas, guatapiques, últimas prédicas'', 1983
* ''Chistes parRa desorientar a la policía/poesía'' (Jokes to Confuse the Police/Poetry), 1983
* ''Coplas de Navidad'' (Christmas Couplets), 1983
* ''Poesía política'' (Political Poetry), 1983
* ''Hojas de Parra'' (Grape Leaves / Pages of Parra (Spanish pun)), 1985
* ''Nicanor Parra: biografía emotiva'' (Nicanor Parra: Emotional Biography), Ediciones Rumbos, 1988
* ''Poemas para combatir la calvicie'' (Poems to Combat Baldness), 1993
* ''Páginas en blanco'' (White Pages), 2001
* ''Lear, Rey & Mendigo'' (Lear, King & Beggar), 2004
* ''Obras completas I & algo +'' (Complete Works I and Something More), 2006
* ''Discursos de Sobremesa'' (After Dinner Declarations), 2006
* ''Obras Completas II & algo +'' (Complete Works II and Something More), 2011
* ''Así habló Parra en El Mercurio, entrevistas dadas al diario chileno entre 1968 y 2007'' (Thus Spoke Parra in El Mercurio, Interviews Given to the Chilean Newspaper Between 1968 and 2007), 2012
* ''El último apaga de luz'' (The Last One to Leave Turns Off the Lights), 2017

'''English translations'''
* ''Poems and antipoems:''.  Edited by Miller Williams. Translators: Fernando Alegría and others. New Directions Pub. Corp., 1967
* {{cite book | title = Antipoems, new and selected | publisher = New Directions | location = New York, N.Y | year = 1985 | isbn = 0811209601 }}
* {{cite book|title=Antipoems: How to Look Better and Feel Great|translator= Liz Werner|publisher=New Directions| year= 2004| isbn=978-0-8112-1597-8}}
* {{cite book | title=After-Dinner Declarations|translator= Dave Oliphant| publisher=Host | year= 2009| isbn= 978-0-924047-63-3}}

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Nicanor Parra}}
{{portal|Poetry}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20010922184133/https://fundacionparra.cl/web/ Nicanor Parra] Official website
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180529232323/http://www.uchile.cl/cultura/parra/ Nicanor Parra website] at the [[Universidad de Chile (university)|Universidad de Chile]]
* [http://www.adamar.org/ensayo/000182.vasquez_rocca.htm La Antipoesía de Parra y el lenguaje del artefacto ] UNESCO
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070913064101/http://www.trazegnies.arrakis.es/parra.html El Proyecto de la Antipoesía de Nicanor Parra]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180515153014/http://www.ubiobio.cl/ebb/parra/home.htm Nicanor Parra en Biblioteca Virtual Cervantes]
*[https://www.loc.gov/item/93842485/ Nicanor Parra recorded at the Library of Congress for the Hispanic Division’s audio literary archive on Apr. 14, 1970]

{{Miguel de Cervantes Prize}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parra, Nicanor}}
[[Category:1914 births]]
[[Category:2018 deaths]]
[[Category:Chilean male poets]]
[[Category:Chilean physicists]]
[[Category:People from Punilla Province]]
[[Category:Parra family|Nicanor Parra]]
[[Category:National Prize for Literature (Chile) winners]]
[[Category:Premio Cervantes winners]]
[[Category:University of Chile alumni]]
[[Category:Brown University alumni]]
[[Category:Alumni of St Catherine's College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Chile]]
[[Category:Chilean men centenarians]]
[[Category:20th-century Chilean poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Chilean male writers]]