marquez.jpgSix years have passed since Gabriel García Márquez’s last publication (the novella, Memories of My Melancholy Whores), but he will soon publish Yo no vengo a decir un discurso which translates to I Didn’t Come to Give a Speech.

The phrase comes from  speech he wrote in high school in 1944. Mondadori, Italy’s largest publishing house, will release the book on October 29th.

According to the Latin America Herald Tribune, Marquez feels that this project helped him rediscover how his writing skills evolved over the course of his career. Most of these speeches are unpublished. Altogether, the Nobel literature laureate compiled 22 speeches to be in the book.

Here’s more from the article: “In his third public speech, upon receiving the Romulo Gallegos prize in 1972, the writer said that he had agreed to do two of the things he had promised ‘never to do: receive an award and give a speech.’ However, he changed his stance 10 years later, when he received the Nobel Literature Prize and had to pen the most important speech that any author could have to write. The result was ‘La soledad de America Latina’ (‘The Solitude of Latin America‘), considered to be a masterpiece, and since then giving speeches has been a part of his life.”

Back in April 2009, some feared that  Marquez would stop writing. His agent, Carmen Balcells was quoted by a Colombian newspaper expressing doubts that he will write again. A few days later, the author told a reporter that rumor was false. He said, “My job is to write, not to publish … I’ll know when the pastries that I have in the oven are ready for the eating.”