The Sevillian poet and writer Manuel Mantero died at the age of 94 in the North American state of Georgia, where worked as a teacher a large part of his life. The mayor of Seville, Jose Luis Sanzexpressed his condolences for the death of the writer, whom he considered an “emblem of contemporary literature” and who assured that the city of Seville has always been “his muse from a distance.”
Mantero distinguished himself by the Seville Gold Medal and the title of Favorite Son of his hometown, in addition to receiving the National Literature Prize in 1960. He also received the Andalusian Critics’ Prize and the Fastenrath Prize, awarded by the Royal Spanish Academy.
Since 1969 he has worked in the United States as professor at Western Michigan Universityand in this country he founded and directed the magazine Sagitario, in which they collaborated Jorge Luis Borges, Jorge Guillén and Vicente Aleixandreamong others. In 1973 he moved to the state of Georgiaat the university where he held a special chair of literature until his retirement in August 2000.
As a poet he published a a dozen titlessome of which are anthologies, while as a novelist he has brought to light ‘lion droppings» and « Better to die than to change ». He also distinguished himself as a literary critic, edited various anthologies of other poets and is the author of half a dozen essays entirely devoted to poets and poetry, such as «Post-war Spanish poets‘. Their ‘Complete works‘ were published between 2007 and 2011 by the Sevillian label RD Editores in four volumes.
