Photography: Juanjo Braulio, Twitter profile.
Juanjo Braulio He is from Valencia, from 72, and works as a journalist. In 2015 he published his first novel titled the silence of the swamp with which it was very successful and which has recently been adapted to the cinema. His second novel came out in 2017 and is Dirty and wicked. In this interview He tells us about them and much more. I really appreciate your dedicated time and kindness.
Juanjo Braulio — Interview
- ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: With your first novel, the silence of the swamp, you debuted very successfully in 2015 and a movie has been made, and the second one is Dirty and wicked. Did you expect the good reception in the literary world?
JULY BRAULIO: I'd be lying if I said yes. It is evident that one writes to be read and that such a thing is carried out by the largest possible number of people. However, the response from critics and the public exceeded any expectation that I had thought about. the silence of the swamp It was, in addition to my first novel, a challenge that I had posed to myself as to whether I would be able to do it because I had been writing in the media for more than twenty years at the time, but I had never taken on a challenge of this magnitude because it is very different to write news, reports or interviews than a novel that not only requires other codes, but also other modes.
- AL: Can you remember any of your first readings? And the first story you wrote?
JB: I've been a voracious reader since I was six years old, so it's very difficult for me to remember a first reading. However, my mother remembers that, when I was about seven or eight years old, I fell into my hands with a juvenile edition of The Iliad y The odyssey that it was for readers older than me and that I shipped in a weekend. Since they didn't think I had understood the story, they gave me a little test and were quite surprised when they found that I had.
Respecto a my first story fiction, I do have an anecdote from when I was twelve years old and my language and literature teacher —Isabel de Ancos to whom I keep a lot of love and gratitude—sent a free topic essay. I wrote a story of ghosts that, in his opinion, he thought he had copied it from somewhere. For this reason, he made me write another one during class time and, when he read it, he told me: "You will be a writer." It took me thirty years to listen to him, but I did.
- AL: A head writer? You can choose more than one and from all eras.
JB: Difficult choice. Borges said that others could brag about the books they had written that he did about the ones he had read and I think exactly the same. The list would be endless but, among my favorites, I would highlight Robert Graves, Umberto Eco, Mario Vargas Llosa, Javier Cercas, Margarite Yourcenar, Manuel Vazquez Montalban...
- AL: What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?
JB: Well, continuing with the list from the previous question, Friar William of Baskerville de The Name of the Rose; to Urania de The party of the goat; to the Rafael Sanchez Mazas de Soldiers of Salamis; to the Adriano de Memories of Hadrian and Pepe Carvalho de Tattoo. For example.
- AL: Any mania or special habit when writing or reading?
JB: Actually no. After years in newsrooms of communication media that are not a particularly quiet place to write, I've gotten used to isolating myself almost anywhere. And the same thing happens to me when I read, so, except underwater, I think I can do both everywhere.
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
JB: Basically. the same. In addition to being a writer, I'm still a journalist, so the time I can dedicate to literature is limited, so I've also gotten used to taking advantage of the time I have free for it.
- AL: Are there other genres that you like?
JB: Yes. I'm a fan of the books of history and political essays.
- AL: What are you reading now? And writing?
JB: I always read two or three books at a time. right now i'm with Without soul, Sebastian Roa e stories of rome, by Enric Gonzalez. Regarding what I am writing, I have in my hands quite a big project I can't say anything about it at the moment.
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is?
JB: Well, as always. With poor iron health because Spain is a country that does not read compared to the rest of the civilized world.
- AL: Is the moment of crisis that we are experiencing being difficult for you or will you be able to keep something positive for future stories?
JB: Everything influences. We writers are not beings who live in ivory cages oblivious to what surrounds them. Also, in my case, my status as a journalist makes me a current junkie with which, necessarily, all that influences my stories. However, what will finally appear in a novel or a story is something that I am not able to predict.