Leonardo Wild
Casilla 17-22-10312
Quito, Ecuador Email: dlwild@access.net.ec
Home page: www.leonardowild.info
A brief narrative account of my career
I began writing at the age of twelve. I still have, from
those days, five unpublished, handwritten
manuscript-novels in Spanish. My professional
writing career began in 1994 when I started to
publish a series of weekly articles for one of the
main cultural magazines of Ecuador’s national
newspapers (La Hora). After a year of freelancing, I
was asked to become part of the editorial team for
La Hora Cultural, as well as to supply the Sunday
Magazine with another two weekly (freelanced)
articles, both on ecology as well as related to science
or technology. In total, I’ve published nearly 200
articles in various national magazines, some having
been re-printed in Spain by the Spanish/Galician
magazine Finis Terrae.
The articles on ecology and technology caught the
interest of one of Ecuador’s main educational
publishing companies, LIBRESA, which was in the
process of printing a second version of my adventure
novel that describes the life of those who work for
gold-survey corporations in Ecuador’s mountainous
jungles. The first version of Oro en la selva had been
published only six months before (1996) for
Ecuador’s National Library System of the Ministry of
Education (SINAB – Sistema Nacional de Bibliotecas).
LIBRESA asked me to write a book on ecology
(Ecología al rojo vivo - 1998), which won the
Municipality of Quito’s Honorable Mention “Isabel
Tobar Guarderas” for best social science book of the
year.
I met Hans-Christian Kirsch —Frederik Hetmann—, a
well-known German writer, during a tall-ship
crossing of the Atlantic when I was working as an
Educational Officer aboard Friedtjof Nansen, a
German-run school-ship. Hans-Christian Kirsch took
one of my English manuscripts to his publishers in
Germany and, presently, one of the editors (who’d
been in charge of buying the rights for Gaarder’s
Sophie’s World for Hanser Verlag) agreed to have my
novel translated and published at the new company
he went to work for, Carlsen. It was published by
Carlsen Verlag under the title Unemotion: Roman
Über die Zukunft der Gefühle – Unemotion: Novel
About the Future of Emotions, which won the “Owl of
the Month” in April of 1997 —given out by the
Bulletin Jugend & Literatur—, as well as having been
chosen among the “Seven Best” in March 1997 by
Deutschlandradio and Focus Magazine.
Though my writings have always tried to present
certain concerns about different aspects of life with
plotlines shaped to include in the fiction elements of
depth, of social or even philosophical concern. Such
was the case with the Young Adult book The Ultimate
Adventure (published by C. Bertelsmann as Extrem! –
2001), an adventure novel about the philosophy of
adventure: what drives human beings to go on
adventures? Is it just escapism? Or is it something
that runs deeper within us? Is it just a romantic word
for trouble, as Louis L’Amour wrote, or is it a striving
to make the impossible feasible, as Chris Bonnington
claims?
Perhaps, as a side note, I must add that my life has
taken me through many different paths, and though
I’m a citizen of the United States, I’ve spent most of
my time in Ecuador, where I’m a permanent resident.
Although I went to college in the United States
(Virginia), I didn’t attain my degree —not for lack of
good grades—, but because I realized that it
wouldn’t have helped me in my writing career,
whereas writing and a life of varied experiences
would provide me with a richer first-hand knowledge
and understanding of the intricacies of life.
I’m currently writing an economic thriller, an in-
depth study of complementary currencies such as
those being used in Argentina and other Third World
nations (as well as First World nations), and the
different problems posed by money as a technology
that doesn’t meet the needs of society but is rather
at the core of some of the most perpetuating
tendencies of human exploitation and ecological
degradation.
SPANISH:
Leonardo Wild, Stanford, Connecticut, 1966, hijo de
padre ecuatoriano y madre alemana. Comenzó a
escribir a los 12 años de edad, sus primeras novelas
a los 16, una mezcla entre ciencia ficción y salvaje
oeste (todas aún inéditas). Luego de una estadía en
Europa (1983-84), donde trabajó en varios oficios, y
terminada una gira por varios países, regresó al
Ecuador pero pronto se hizo a la mar en un yate
velero en octubre de 1984 como grumete, zarpando
de Salinas rumbo a Tahití. Visitó las islas Galápagos,
la Marquesas y el Archipiélago de las Tuamotos.
Consiguió su diploma de High School en EE.UU.,
estudió fotografía, sociología, computación, inglés,
técnicas de grabación moderna, entre otros, en las
Universidades de Lord Fairfax y NOVA College de
Virginia.
Volvió a la mar como Primer Oficial en 1989, esta vez
zarpando de Australia rumbo al Mar de Coral; en
esta travesía visitó las Islas Salomón, Vanuatu, Nueva
Caledonia y Fiji. Trabajó como capitán para llevar un
yate de Nueva Zelanda al Ecuador. Sus primeras
publicaciones datan de 1994; obras de narrativa y
ensayo a partir de 1996.
Leonardo Wild reside actualmente en Tumbaco.
PUBLICATIONS - ARTICLES:
Over 200 articles for the Environment and Science
pages of the Sunday magazine of the Diario La Hora,
as well as for its cultural magazine. Also
publications on cultural issues, literature and social
themes for the following magazines: Eskeletra,
Ciudad Alternativa, Diners, Gestión, Estudios
Ecuatorianos, AsíES, ArtES, Finnis Terrae (Spain).
PUBLICATIONS - NON-FICTION BOOKS:
October 1995 Indianer Märchen aus Südamerika,
together with co-author Frederik Hetmann (Hans-
Christian Kirsch). FISCHER TASCHENBUCHVERLAG,
Frankfurt, Germany.
December 1997 Ecología al rojo vivo. LIBRESA,
Quito, Ecuador. (Second printing: October 1999.) (I
own all rights except Spanish rights for South
America and the Caribbean).
PUBLICATIONS – FICTION BOOKS:
April 1996 Oro en la selva, published (in
Spanish) by the Sistema Nacional de Bibliotecas
(SINAB), Ministry of Education, for the national library
system, Quito, Ecuador. Adventure novel; paperback.
(I own all rights except Spanish rights for South
America and the Caribbean).
August 1996 UNEMOTION: Roman über the
Zukunft der Gefühle. CARLSEN Verlag, Hamburg,
Germany. Novel; hardcover. (I own all rights as of
august 2003.)
January 1997 Oro en la selva. LIBRESA, Quito,
Ecuador. (I own all rights except Spanish rights for
South America and the Caribbean).
September 1997 Die Insel, die es nie gab,
together with Frederik Hetmann (Hans-Christian
Kirsch). C. BERTELSMANN Verlag, München,
Germany. Novel; hardcover.
September 1998 UNEMOTION: Roman über the
Zukunft der Gefühle. BELTZ & GELDBERG Verlag,
Weinheim, Germany. Novel; 1st edition paperback
(2nd overall). Translation from English.
October 1998 Die Insel, die es nie gab, together
with Frederik Hetmann (Hans-Christian Kirsch).
OMNIBUS (Bertelsmann) Verlag, München, Germany.
Novel; 1st edition paperback (2nd overall).
February 1999 Orquídea negra o el factor vida,
published (in Spanish) by the Sistema Nacional de
Bibliotecas (SINAB), Ministry of Education, for the
national library system, Quito, Ecuador. SF novel,
paperback. (I own all rights except Spanish rights
for South America and the Caribbean).
October 2000 Orquídea negra o el factor vida.
ALFAGUARA, Quito, Ecuador. SF novel, paperback,
2nd edition.
February 2001 EXTREM! (The Ultimate Adventure
English title). C. Bertelsmann Jugendbuch Verlag,
München. Novel; hardcover. (World rights by C.
Bertelsmann.)
September 2001 El caso de los muertos de risa.
Editorial Planeta, Quito. Novel (murder mystery),
trade paperback. (I own all rights except Spanish
rights for South America and the Caribbean).
PHOTOGRAPHIC JOBS
22 February- Photographer for a Geological/Gold
Survey
25 March 1988: Expedition into Upper Amazon,
Third Andes Cordillera, Napo Province. Helicopter
entry. Chalupas Mine, Co. Ecuador.
October 1997 Photographer for a Geological/Gold
Survey.
Nambija Gold Mines, southern Ecuador. Canuc
Resources Inc., Canada.
January 1998 Photographer on the trip Quito –
Manaos,
May 1998 Brazil, and in charge of gathering the
necessary material for the book about the trip.
Fundación Educativa Pestalozzi. (14 Photographs
published in December 1998 in the coffee-table
book “a manaos”.)
June 2001 33 photographs (including the cover) for a
book on education by Rebeca Wild (no title yet)
published by Beltz Pädagogik Verlag, Weinheim,
Germany. Interests: Science, Technology, Ecology, Education, Economy, too many to list.
Published writer: Yes
Freelance: Yes |
