Cañón, James

PERSONAL:

Born in Bogota, Colombia; immigrated to the United States. Education: Graduate of Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano (Bogota, Colombia); Columbia University, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—Lisa Bankoff, ICM New York, 825 8th Ave., New York, NY 10019. E-mail—james@jamescanon.com.

CAREER:

Writer.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Henfield Prize.

WRITINGS:

Tales from the Town of Widows & Chronicles from the Land of Men (novel), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2007, first published in Dutch by Meulenhoff, 2006.

Work represented in anthologies, including Bésame Mucho, Painted Leaf Press, and Virgins, Guerrillas & Locas, Cleis Press.

SIDELIGHTS:

James Cañón is a Colombian writer who moved to New York City to study English at the age of twenty-five. His first novel, a contemporary story titled Tales from the Town of Widows & Chronicles from the Land of Men, is set in the village of Mariquita, Colombia. The men of the village have been killed or are fighting with the guerrillas, and the one hundred or so women learn how to survive without them as they suffer from lack of food, drought, and a flu epidemic. While the lives of the men are brutal, those of the women, although not perfect, focus on nurturing their community.

The women include Rosalba, who becomes magistrate and mandates that the women are not allowed to use the word "help." She also begins a campaign to increase the population. Many of the women have sex with a local priest, but in vain, as he is sterile. School teacher Cleotilde plans to rewrite history relying on the menstrual cycle. Doña Victoria hides her only son from the revolutionaries who would enlist him by dressing him in his sister's communion dress, but Julio finds the look becoming and continues to adopt the attire of a female. After twenty years, several men return to change the nature of the all-female village.

Booklist contributor Brad Hooper called the novel "an inventively rich stew." "This exciting book confirms the idea that our world would be far better off in the caring hands of women," observed David A. Berona in a Library Journal review.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2006, Brad Hooper, review of Tales from the Town of Widows & Chronicles from the Land of Men, p. 23.

Book World, February 18, 2007, "The Feminine Mystique: When a Village Loses All Its Men, the Women Find Themselves in Paradise," p. 4.

Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2006, review of Tales from the Town of Widows & Chronicles from the Land of Men, p. 1185; March 1, 2007, review of Tales from the Town of Widows & Chronicles from the Land of Men, p. 3.

Library Journal, December 1, 2006, David A. Berona, review of Tales from the Town of Widows & Chronicles from the Land of Men, p. 106.

New Yorker, March 19, 2007, review of Tales from the Town of Widows & Chronicles from the Land of Men, p. 142.

Publishers Weekly, October 30, 2006, review of Tales from the Town of Widows & Chronicles from the Land of Men, p. 36.

Washington Post Book World, February 18, 2007, review of Tales from the Town of Widows & Chronicles from the Land of Men, p. 4.

ONLINE

Authortrek.com,http://www.authortrek.com/ (August 8, 2007), author interview.

James Cañón Home Page,http://www.jamescanon.com.