Alberto Manguel

Alberto Manguel is a Canadian citizen born in Buenos Aires in 1948. He has lived in Israel, Argentina, Italy, England, Tahiti, France and Canada. He is the author of five novels, including Latest News from an Abandoned Land (McKitterick Prize in England and Authors' Association Prize in Canada). He is also the author of several essays, including The Dictionary of Imaginary Places (with Gianni Guadalupi); A history of reading (Médicis essay prize); In the forest of the mirror (France Culture prize); The Picture Book; Chez Borges (Poitou-Charentes prize) and La Bibliothèque at night.

Alberto Manguel received the Premio Germán Sánchez Ruipérez and the Formentor in Spain, and the Alfonso Reyes Prize in Mexico, for all of his critical work. In France, he won the Roger Caillois prize, the Medici essay prize and the France Culture prize, and he was elected to the rank of Commander of Arts and Letters. In 2018 he received the Gutenberg Prize. He is an honorary doctor of the Universities of Liège in Belgium, Anglia Ruskin, Cambridge, in England, University of Ottawa and York University in Canada. He is a member of the Academia Argentina de Letras, Real Academia Española and the Royal Society of Literature in the United Kingdom. Alberto Manguel was director of the National Library of Argentina from 2015 to 2018. He currently directs the Center for Research on the History of Reading (CEHL) in Lisbon.

Research theme

Myth as metaphor of identity

Research project in Paris

The invention of Europe through languages and cultures (annual chair 2021-2022)