Enrique Lihn

Enrique Lihn Carrasco (3 September 1929 – 10 July 1988) was a Chilean writer, literary critic, and cartoonist, mostly known as a poet, but who also wrote essays, short stories, novels, plays, and comic books.

[8] This book was subsequently translated into French as La chambre noire and published in Paris (Pierre Jean Oswald Editeur, 1972) as a bilingual edition, featuring cover art and illustrations by Roberto Matta.

This strain found expression in the two poetry collections he published in 1969: Escrito en Cuba and La musiquilla de las pobres esferas.

He also served as a research professor of literature at the Center for Humanistic Studies, led by Cristián Huneeus, at the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Chile starting in 1972.

In the magazine Manuscritos, Kay highlighted the Quebrantahuesos, poetry murals created by Nicanor Parra, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Lihn using the collage technique.

He also provided illustrations for other books, including Barlovento's 1949 edition of María Carolina Geel's novel Soñaba y amaba el adolescente Perces.

In accordance with his wishes, his friends Pedro Lastra and Adriana Valdés published his book Diario de muerte (1989), meticulously gathering, transcribing, and arranging the poems he had left behind.

[33] His final resting place is located in the Parque del Recuerdo Cemetery, Sector D09, in Santiago, Chile,[34] near the burial site of his dear friend, the poet Stella Díaz Varín.

[35] Additionally, the Chilean cartoonist Liván (Iván Cornejo) created a comic based on Lihn's work El Paseo Ahumada, which was published by the editorial Das Kapital in 2014.

[36] In his poetry, Lihn favored verses that leaned towards poetic prose rather than extreme lyricism,[37] showcasing a clear influence from Nicanor Parra's work.

[38] Literary critic Juan Manuel Vial noted that Lihn pioneered a style characterized by a fusion of "lyricism, everyday speech, essay, news, artistic appreciations, antipoetry, and emotions," which he initiated with his collection Poesía de paso (1966).

Essayist Héctor Libertella remarked that Lihn's work belonged to a group of "cavemen"[41] who challenged the market-driven strategies and public personas of esteemed authors, contributing to the renewal of continental literature.

Lihn's narrative style has been likened to the works of Reinaldo Arenas, Severo Sarduy, Manuel Puig, Salvador Elizondo, and Osvaldo Lamborghini.