The best of Latin America’s young writers

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Residents of Colombia’s capital city, Bogotá, are justly proud of the long literary heritage of their city and nation, which is often familiar to outsiders only for headlines of violence. Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez is only the best known in a venerable tradition of Colombian writers.

The capital’s promotion of reading contributed to Bogotá being named a World Book Capital for 2007, a recognition bestowed on a different city each year by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Previous Unesco World Book capitals included Turin, Montreal, Antwerp, New Delhi, Alexandria and Madrid.

Bogotá officials decided to ask some 2,000 literary observers—editors, agents, authors and readers—for their thoughts on the ``most representative’’ of young Latin American writers.

The result is the ``Bogotá 39,’’ a total of 39 writers, all under 39, whose homelands range from Mexico to Argentina, from Cuba to Chile.

Posted by Patrick J. McDonnell and Andrés D’Alessandro in Buenos Aires