Juan Antonio Gossaín Abdallah (January 17, 1949 – ) is a Colombian radio national news director, chief editor, and journalist, as well as a novelist. He wrote the novel "The Ballad of María Abdala." He is well known for directing the RCN Radio Network (Radio Cadena Nacional de Colombia) from around 1984 to 2010 and during that time had his own radio program that was regularly broadcast in Colombia. Gossaín was a two-time winner in the radio journalism category of the Premio Nacional de Periodismo Simón Bolívar (Translated: Simón Bolívar National Journalism Award), a national award for Colombian journalism. Personal Juan Gossaín was born in San Bernardo del Viento, Córdoba Department, Caribbean region of Colombia around 1949 to his parents Juan Gossaín and Berta Abdallah. Gossaín's father and mother had immigrated to Colombia from Lebanon. Gossaín studied at Colegio La Esperanza in Cartagena, a boarding school in Cartagena, from age 9 to 17. He married his wife Margoth Ricci on March 24, 1984, and the couple had two children named Danilo and Isabela, and he has at least two grandchildren named Juan and Ana Gabriela. Gossaín currently resides in Cartagena. He was hospitalized in 2012. Career Juan Gossaín started his journalism career writing for El Espectador newspaper from around 1968 to 1971. He later became Chief at El Heraldo, Barranquilla. Gossaín worked as the director of the RCN Radio station for about 26 years, from February 12, 1984 to June 30, 2010. Gossaín hosted a very popular morning talk show. One of his former colleagues at RCN was Humberto De la Calle, former vice president of Colombia and a negotiator during the peace process, about which Gossaín interviewed him. Gossaín retired in 2010. Over the course of his career as a journalist, he covered at least 10 presidential campaigns and even did a special for El Tiempo newspaper about electoral corruption. Aside from radio journalism, Gossaín was responsible for writing several novels such as "La balada de Maria Abdala", "San Bernando del Viento", and "La mala hierba". His writing often contained attention grabbing language that enhanced his storytelling leaving his audience in suspense, unable to put his work down. These qualities of writing led Gossaín to be viewed as a fabulist known as someone with the capability of creating exhilarating stories about different characters. Now that Gossaín is retired, he has opened a writing workshop for aspiring journalists. It is