My name is Rodrigo López Martínez, and I work at University College Dublin, Ireland, where I teach and research Latin American culture. I wrote a book titled The Avant-Garde after Bolaño: Literature and Affects in Latin America, entirely dedicated to studying the influence of Roberto Bolaño on a new generation of Latin American novelists.
I created Bolañistas simply to share thoughts and comments revolving around Bolaño. I first became fascinated with his works as a teenage, idealistic reader with a hunger for turning literature into a life-changing event. Discovering the eccentric poets of The Savage Detectives was a sort of rite of passage for me. Reading, writing, talking, drinking, fighting, falling in love, getting lost… The excessive adventures of the Visceral Realists were the exact literary life that I wanted and imagined.
On a personal level, I like to tell myself that I have become wiser than that. But I also know that the juvenile desire to live like a savage detective has somehow always driven my relationship with books. At least, it has made me want to read more, and that is saying a lot.
After all, I hope that this website will become a gathering place for both experienced travellers and newcomers to the universe of Bolaño.