Peruvian writer. He is considered one of the best storytellers in Latin American literature. His works have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Dutch and Polish. He is also recognized for his works in other genres: novels, essays, theater, diary, and aphorism. The same year of his death, he won the renowned Juan Rulfo Prize for Latin American and Caribbean Literature. His main influences are 19th century storytellers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Anton Chekhov Y Guy de Maupassant.
He studied Letters and Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, between the years 1946 to 1952. He began his career as a writer with the short story Gray life that he published in the magazine Correo Bolivariano, in 1948. In 1952 he won a journalism scholarship thanks to the Institute of Hispanic Culture, which allowed him to travel to Spain and, later, to France, Belgium, Poland, Italy and Germany in 1960.
In 1958 he returned to Peru, and in September of the following year he traveled to the city of Ayacucho, to occupy the position of professor and director of cultural extension at the National University of Huamanga. In October 1960 he returned to France. In Paris he worked as a translator and editor for the agency France Presse (1962-1972). He was appointed Peruvian cultural attaché in Paris and deputy delegate to UNESCO, and later Minister-Counselor, until reaching the position of Peruvian ambassador to UNESCO (1986-1990).
Around 1993 he settled in Lima. In Peru he was distinguished with the National Prize for Literature (1983) and the National Prize for Culture (1993). The set of his stories is gathered in the book The word of the mute, which he expanded throughout his career and has four volumes. Among his most famous stories are “The buzzards without feathers“,”Alienation“,”Dubbing” Y “Silvio in the rose garden“.
Thanks to his works, which appeared in the 1950s, Urban Realism reaches its full development in Peru, and makes its way to the works of the authors of the Latin American boom such as Mario Vargas Llosa Y Alfredo Bryce Echenique.
Narrated in a simple and ironic style, the characters in their stories, belonging to the middle or lower class, find themselves in situations of failure and failure, usually in the face of small personal or daily tragedies that are articulated with the discourses in constant struggle: racism, signs of a colonial Lima stopped in its progress, country-city migration; as well as with particular feelings such as loneliness and failure.
Ribeyro was a prolific author. He wrote works in short stories, novels, plays, autobiography, and numerous unclassified works. For this reason, he is considered one of the most important and widely read writers in Peru and Latin America.