Manuel Mejía Vallejo

Manuel Mejía Vallejo (23 April 1923 – 23 July 1998)[1] was a Colombian writer and journalist. The specialist Luís Carlos Molina says that Mejía represents the Andean aspect of the contemporary Colombian narrative, characterized by a world of symbols which are little by little being lost in the memory of the mountain.

Manuel Mejía Vallejo

Doctor Honoris Causa of the National University of Colombia. Professor of literature at the National University of Colombia at Medellín, director of the Departmental Printing Press of Antioquia.

Born in Jericó, he studied at the Bolivarian Pontifical University and studied painting and sculpture at the Fine Arts Institute of Medellín. He collaborated as a journalist in the newspaper ''El Sol. He was the creator of Grupo La Tertulia with Gonzalo Restrepo Jaramillo and Jaime Sanín.

Between 1949 and 1957 he was exiled in Venezuela, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. In 1978 he was named Director of the Writer's Workshop of the Pilot Public Library of Medellín. His 1988 novel La casa de las dos palmas was awarded the Venezuelan Rómulo Gallegos Prize. Many of his books were set in his home area.[2]

Vallejo died in El Retiro.