Literary Logbook
I was born in Chile, in the port of Talcahuano, in whose seas Melville was inspired to create "Moby-Dick." My land was, for many centuries, the last frontier of the Spanish crown and Chile because beyond it, the brave Mapuche people managed to keep at bay the advance of all invaders. Between my adolescence and my university years, I worked in different professions: car caretaker, clown, nightclub bouncer, and trinket seller, professions that I reported for my desire to know other lives and their stories. I played in a punk-rock band, and I was a terrible actor, an athlete who never ran in a competition, the director of my career magazine, and a freelance protest photographer. I wrote verses in different notebooks of finance, accounting, or taxes, which died buried in a mass grave by those who never wanted to recognize them. I graduated as a chartered accountant with the hope of telling stories, and I invented one on my way to the capital, one where I lived in Santiago for almost twenty years, achieving a prosperous professional career in the leading consulting firms in the country, tax fraud investigator, university professor and speaker at conferences. While doing all that, at night, I wrote with the illusion of a chronically ill person who resorts to an unprescribed medicine to heal. I worked as a freelance at the Ministry of Culture and the Arts, I worked in literary workshops with prominent writers and screenwriters such as Marta Blanco, Nona Fernández, and Marcelo Leonart, and I was part of different independent cultural collectives in Santiago, all to be close to art and not go crazy; if anything, I was no longer crazy. After three years, in 2012, I published my first book of short stories "Ciudad Capital" which received an excellent Literary review and was awarded by the Ministry of Education of Chile. I have been invited to Literary Fairs in Santiago, Viña del Mar, San Francisco (CA) and New York.
That guy is me.
Now I write in New York, confusing all my stories with the streets of this indescribable city and discovering new ways to talk about this world that every day inspires me to tell what I see and, by the way, not to forget who I am and where I came from.
I played in a punk-rock band, was a terrible actor, an athlete who never ran in a competition, editor of my university magazine, and an independent photographer of street protests. I wrote verses in notebooks filled with finance, accounting, and tax formulas—verses that ended up buried in a common grave by those who never wanted to acknowledge them.
I graduated as an auditor-accountant with the secret hope of becoming a storyteller, and on my way to the capital I invented a life for myself: one in which I spent nearly twenty years in Santiago building a successful professional career in some of the country’s leading consulting firms, investigating tax fraud, teaching at universities, and speaking at conferences. Yet while doing all of that, I wrote at night with the persistence of a chronically ill man turning to an unprescribed medicine in search of relief.
I worked freelance for the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage of Chile, participated in literary workshops alongside distinguished writers and screenwriters such as Marta Blanco, Nona Fernández, and Marcelo Leonart, and became involved in various independent cultural collectives in Santiago—all in order to remain close to art and avoid going mad, if I had not already crossed that line.
Then, after three years of work, I published my first collection of stories, Capital City, in 2012. The book received outstanding literary reviews and was later recognized by the Ministry of Education of Chile. Since then, I have been invited to literary fairs in Santiago, Viña del Mar, San Francisco, and New York City.
That man is me.
Now I write in New York, confusing all my stories with the streets of this indescribable city, discovering new ways of speaking about a world that inspires me every day to tell what I see—and, in the process, not to forget who I am or where I come from.
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The city of the invisibles
The City of the Invisibles"...Getting lost in the city is the most reasonable way to get to know it, to feel it, with your feet the streets and potholes as you go, the warm asphalt of summer, the smells that characterize its neighborhoods. Close your eyes and vibrate with the unknown, fear the darkness of an alley and then, taking a deep breath, receive what it gives us, the voices of people who say little or much. Why know the city? Because to know it is to recognize oneself. The Chilean poet Enrique Linh liked to walk the streets of New York, because he said he felt invisible. In my writings invisibility is not necessarily a pleasure that my characters enjoy, it can be a burden that, to their misfortune, they will never leave on the sidewalk...". (Esteban Escalona, Berkeley, San Francisco, CA)
