Blanca Wiethüchter

Blanca Wiethüchter López (La Paz, August 17, 1947 – Cochabamba, October 16, 2004) was a Bolivian writer, historian, and publisher. She became one of the most enigmatic and recognized authors of Bolivian literature in the 20th and 21st centuries. She published essays, short stories, and poems. Hers was one of the iconic female voices of Bolivian poetry of the late 20th century. Her writing spanned three decades, from the mid-1970s until her death in 2004.

Biography Her parents were German immigrants. She graduated in Letters from the Higher University of San Andrés and in Learning sciences from the Sorbonne; she earned a Master's degree in Latin American Literature at the University of Paris. Wiethüchter was editor of the cultural supplement in "La Hormiga Eléctrica" in of the literary magazines Hipótesis and Piedra Imán. She served as editorial director of "Hombrecito sentado" and "Mujercita Sentada"; and was the co-founder of the cultural space Puraduralubia (1993). She taught at the Catholic University of Bolivia and the Higher University of San Andrés.

Wiethüchter was married to the composer Alberto Villalpando, and they had three daughters. She died in Cochabamba in 2004, and her ashes were strewn on Lake Titicaca.

Selected works

Poetry Asistir al tiempo, 1975 Travesía, 1978 Noviembre 79, 1979 Madera viva y árbol difunto, 1982 Territorial, 1983 El verde no es un color: A la luz de una provincia tropical, 1992 Los negros labios encantados, 1992 El rigor de la llama, 1994 La Lagarta, 1995 'Sayariy', 1995 Qantatai (o Iluminado), 1996 Antología La Piedra que labra otra piedra, 1999 Ítaca, 2000 Luminar, 2005 Ángeles del miedo, 2005

Short stories Memoria Solicitada, 1989 En el aire de navegación de las montañas, 1992 A manera de Prólogo, 1993

Novel El jardín de Nora 1998

Essays La Estructura de lo Imaginario en la Obra Poética de Jaime Saenz, 1976 Hacia una historia crítica de la literatura en Bolivia I y II, 2002 Pérez Alcalá, o los melancólicos senderos del tiempo, 1997