Hebe Uhart

Hebe Uhart (2 December 1936 – 11 October 2018) was an Argentine writer. In 2017, she received the Manuel Rojas Ibero-American Narrative Award.

Career

Of her childhood and relationship with books, Hebe Uhart relates:

In my house I did not have access to reading – just some of my brother's books, which were very theological. I was not encouraged to write; nobody asked me or forced me to write. But, surely, there must have been an underground stimulus, something that is in the houses because, if not, why did my mother tell me so many stories? Until a cousin, more cultured, told me: "You have to read Neruda, Guillén and Vallejo." And I read them. Then I entered the Faculty of Philosophy and started to bond with other wise people with whom I talked about books.

She studied Philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Later she worked as a teacher, both at primary and secondary level, and university at the UBA and the National University of Lomas de Zamora.

She lived in Buenos Aires, where she gave literary workshops. She was a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines, such as El País in Montevideo.

Her stories were adapted into the play Querida mamá o guiando la hiedra, directed by Laura Yusem.

In 2010 she published a compilation of her short stories and novels from 1962 to 2004 in the volume Relatos reunidos (ISBN 9789870424598).

Works

Uhart's works have been collected in numerous anthologies.

Awards and distinctions

• 2004 – Konex Award Merit Diploma, in the category "Cuento: quinquenio 1999–2003"
• 2011 – Book Foundation Award for Best Argentine Book of Literary Creation, for Relatos reunidos
• 2014 – Konex Award Merit Diploma, in the category "Cuento: quinquenio 2004–2008"
• 2015 – Fondo Nacional de las Artes Prize
• 2017 – Manuel Rojas Ibero-American Narrative Award