Marra, Nelson

(1942– )

   Uruguayan short-story writer, poet, novelist, and journalist. Born in Montevideo, Nelson Marra alternated the teaching of literature in secondary schools with the practice of literary journalism in publications of various Latin American countries until 1974, when his short narrative “El guardaespaldas” was awarded the first literary prize by the Uruguayan weekly Marcha. The work was deemed “pornographic” and “subversive” by a military junta that read in it a thinly disguised account of the execution of one of its most notorious members—then recently murdered by the Tupamaros, an urban guerrilla organization. Marra was condemned to four years in prison. Upon his release, he went into exile in Sweden. Among his works—none of which has been translated into English—is El guardaespaldas y otros cuentos (1985). In 1981 he settled in Spain, where he still resides.