Daniel Alarcón – Peru
Graduate of Columbia University, with a Masters in Arts from the University of Iowa. He won a Fulbright scholarship in 2002 and the Whiting Prize in 2004. His first book, Guerra a luz de las velas, was shortlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Prize in 2006. The prestigious British review Granta recently named him one of the best young novelists in the US. He published a book of short stories, War by Candlelight, in 2004 and is Associate Editor of the review Etiqueta Negra. Anthologies, and his first novel, Radio Ausencia, were published in Spanish in July 2007. He lives in Oakland, California, where he is Visiting Writer at Mills College.
Gabriela Alemán - Ecuador
(Río de Janeiro, 1968) Ecuadorian writer and publisher. In 2015 she founded, together with César Salazar and Álvaro Alemán, El Fakir (www.fakirediciones.com), a publishing company that specialises in out-of-print texts, new genres like the graphic novel and anthologies. Since 2017 she has been the chair of Ecuador’s Association of Independent Publishers. Her own work includes short stories, novels, non-fiction and writing for theatre. Her latest publication is called Humo (2017).
Claudia Amengual – Uruguay
Translator, teacher at ORT University and researcher with a socio-cultural approach in the field of linguistics. She coordinates storytelling workshops and writes short stories, some of which have been published and won competition prizes. She is the author of the novels La rosa de Jericó (2000; Punto de Lectura, 2005) and El vendedor de escobas (2002; Punto de Lectura, 2005).
In 2003, she was awarded a scholarship by the Carolina Foundation and the Iberoamerican Society of Friends of the Book and Publishing, to study at Complutense University in Madrid and at the International University Menéndez Pelayo de Santander. In 2004 she participated in the Third Congress of the Spanish Language, in Rosario, Argentina.
Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro – Puerto Rico
A Technology instructor, she has written essays for the literature site ciudadseva.com, columns for the virtual reviews Derivas.net, Letras Salvajes, Letralia Tierra de Letras and Narrativa Puertorriqueña as well as for the periodicals El Vocero de Puerto Rico and La Expresión. Her stories have appeared in the cultural reviews Preámbulos and Tonguas. She is the author of a book of short stories, Origami de letras (2004), and of a novel, Los documentados (2005).
Álvaro Bisama – Chile
Graduated in Latinamerican Studies at the University of Chile. He works as literary critic, writing in various media (in El Mercurio, among others) and has published articles in La tercera, Qué Pasa and The Clinic. His books include Postales urbanas and Zona Cero.
Rodrigo Blanco Calderón – Venezuela
Writer and publisher. He is currently studying for a doctorate in Linguistics and Literature at the University of Paris XIII. He has published the short story collections Una larga fila de hombres (2005), Los invencibles (2007) and Las rayas (2011). His stories have won him accolades in Venezuela and abroad. In 2007 he was selected by the Hay Festival as one of the Bogotá39 group. In 2013 he was the guest writer on the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program. In 2016 he published The Night, his first novel, in Spain and France. It is currently being translated into other European languages. The French translation of The Night (Gallimard, 2016) won the prestigious Prix Rive Gauche in Paris in the Best Foreign Novel category.
Pablo Casacuberta – Uruguay
Author and screenwriter, winner of the Fona Prize 2001, author of Aquí y ahora, Ahora le toca al elefante (1990); La parte de abajo de las cosas (1992); Esta máquina roja (1995); El mar (2000) and Una línea más o menos recta (2002), and awarded first prize in the Competition for Unpublished Writing by the Intendencia Municipal de Montevideo, 2002. As screenwriter he has directed experimental shorts, fiction, animations and the feature-length Another George (UK, 1998); he is currently working on another feature, Tokyo Boogie. One of his screenplays was shortlisted for a Sundance Institute prize.
João Paulo Cuenca – Brazil
(Río de Janeiro, 1978) Ha escrito cuatro novelas, traducidas a ocho idiomas. Tiene publicadas en español El único final feliz para una historia de amor es un accidente (2012) y Cuerpo Presente (2016). En el primer semestre de 2017, Tusquets va a publicar en Colombia, Argentina y México su última novela Descubrí que estaba muerto. Ha sido reconocido como uno de los mejores escritores jóvenes latinoamericanos como parte del proyecto Bogotá 39 y es parte de la selección de la revista británica Granta con los mejores escritores brasileños de su generación.
Junot Díaz – Dominican Republic
Graduate of Rutgers University and holds a Masters in Arts from Cornell University. His stories have appeared in Story, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Best American Short Stories 1996 and African Verse. He won the Pushcart Prize XXII (1997), the Eugene McDermott Award (1998) and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has worked as Associate Professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has written Ysrael, Drown (a collection of ten short stories in English) and is writing his first novel, The Cheater’s Guide To Love. The New Yorker named him as one of the forty best writers under forty. He lives in New York.
Álvaro Enrigue - Mexico
(Guadalajara, 1969) Mexican writer, academic and literary critic, has lectured in Literature at the Universidad Iberoamericana and in Creative Writing at the University of Maryland. Since 1990 he has been a literary critic and has collaborated in magazines and newspapers in Mexico and Spain. After a brief period as the editor of literature for the Fondo de Cultura Económica he joined the magazine Letras Libres. In 1996 he won the Joaquín Mortiz First Novel Prize with La muerte de un instalador. He has published books of short stories like Virtudes capitals (1998) and Hipotermia (2005). His novel El cementerio de sillas was selected by the magazine La Tempestad as the best Mexican novel in 2003. He was listed as one of the best young Latin American writers of the moment as part of the Bogotá39 project /2007). Sudden Death won him the 2013 Herralde Prize. His latest book is Ahora me rindo y eso es todo, published in 2018 by anagrama. He is currently based in New York.
Gonzalo Garcés – Argentina
Studied in Germany and the US before beginning a course in Philisophy and Literature at the University of Buenos Aires (he left these studies unfinished) and Literature at the Sorbonne. Diciembre, his first novel, was published in 1997 in Argentina, gaining a warm reception from both public and critics. In 2000 his second novel, Los impacientes, won the Biblioteca Breve Prize. He has contributed to cultural reviews such as El Perseguidor and the Diario de La Nación de Buenos Aires.
Antonio García Ángel – Colombia
(Cali, 1972) Editorial Advisor at Soho magazine. He studied literature and communications at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. He was selected by the Bogota39 project as one of the best young writers in Colombia. García wrote his novel Recursos Humanos under the mentorship of Mario Vargas Llosa. He is the author of the critically acclaimed bestseller Su casa es mi casa.
Wendy Guerra – Cuba
Graduated in Direction for Cinema, Radio and Television. While teaching in the Department of Communication Media at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), she published Todos se van (2007), a book of poems, Platea a oscuras, and Posar desnuda en la Habana. Diario Apócrifo de Anís Nin. She has been anthologised in various compilations of Cuban literature both in Cuba and abroad, and has published her writing in the reviews Encuentro, La Gaceta de Cuba and Nexos, as well as in specialist editions of Artes Plásticas. She has given talks on Cuban literature at universities and institutions in Europe and Latin America, and has enjoyed scholarships in the US (a scholarship for writers and researchers: 'Special Collections' at the University of California) and France (Gilbert Brownstone Foundation). She currently lives in Havana, Cuba.
Eduardo Halfón – Guatemala
(Guatemala, 1971) This fiction writer studied Industrial Engineering at the North Carolina State University. For eight years he was Professor of Literature at the Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala. He is part of the Bogotá39 group, one of the best 39 Latin American writers under 39. In 2008, his book Clases de dibujo won the el Café Bretón & Bodegas Olarra Literary Prize. Some of his works include El ángel literario (2004), El boxeador polaco (2008), Mañana nunca lo hablamos (2011) and La pirueta (2010), for which he received the José María de Pereda Short Novel Prize.
Rodrigo Hasbún – Bolivia
Rodrigo Hasbún was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 1981. He is author of a collection of short stories, Cinco, and the novel El lugar del cuerpo (Santa Cruz de la Sierra National Literature Prize 2007, in which he also gained a distinction in 2002 in the story category). His writing has appeared in various national and international anthologies.
Claudia Hernández – El Salvador
Graduated in Communications at the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas, where she also studied Law. She has published Otras ciudades, Mediodía de frontera, Olvida Uno. She was awarded the Juan Rulfo de Radio Francia International Prize, in the story category, becoming the first writer from Central America to win it. In 2004 she won the prestigious Anne Seghers Prize, in Germany, for a published work. She has been anthologised in Spain, Italy, France, the US and Germany.
John Junieles – Colombia
Studied Law and Political Science at the University of Cartagena and Government and Public Affairs at the University Externado de Colombia – Columbia University, NY; he has also studied at the Fundación para un Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano. He has worked as a journalist on the dailies El Universal de Cartagena, La República, and El Periódico and has contributed to the reviews Víacuarenta and Noventaynueve (Colombia), Barcelona Review and Ariadna. Among his publications are: Papeles para iniciar el fuego (1993), Temeré por mí al final de estas líneas (1996) and Con la luz que me queda basta (1997). He has taught at universities and currently lives in Bogotá.
Adriana Lisboa – Brazil
Holds a doctorate in Comparative Literature from the UERI, where she also studied Brazilian Literature. She has lived in France, worked as a translator and currently lives in Denver, where she works in academic research. She won the José Saramago Prize (2003, Portugal) and was shortlisted for the Jabuti Prize (2004). Her best-known works include Os fios da memória, Sinfonía en Bronco, Un viejo de colombina and Caligrafías.
Pedro Mairal – Argentina
(Buenos Aires, 1970) His novel Una noche con Sabrina Love won the Clarín Novel Prize in 1998 and was made into a film in 2000. He has also published the novels El año del desierto, The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra and La uruguaya; a volume of short stories, Hoy temprano; and the poetry books Tigre como los pájaros, Consumidor final and Pornosonetos. In 2007 he was included on the Bogotá39 list of the best young Latin American writers. In 2011 he presented the literary television programme Impreso in Argentina. In 2013 he published El gran surubí, a novel in sonnets, and El equilibrio, a collection of his columns. His articles and essays have been published in Maniobras de evasión (Editorial Universidad Diego Portales). His work has been translated into more than eleven languages.
Fabrizio Mejía Madrid – Mexico
Born in the iconic year 1968, he is the youngest storyteller anthologised by Carlos Monsiváis in the new edition of A ustedes les consta, a revision of the Mexican chronicle form in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is author of the novel-chronicle Hombre al agua, which won the Antonin Artaud Prize. His most recent novel is El rencor (published, as the former was, by Joaquín Mortiz). His writing has been included in anthologies such as Nuevas voces de la narrativa mexicana and The Mexico City Reader. Among his other works are Viaje alrededor de mi padre, Pequeños actos de desobediencia and Entre las sábanas.
Carlo Wynter Melo – Panama
Industrial Engineer and holder of a Masters in Organisational Development from the Western Institute of Technology and Further Education, Guadalajara, Jalisco, México, he has also followed literary studies. Among his works are El escapista (1999); Desnudo y otros cuentos (2001) and El escapista y demás fugas (2003); he has been included in the compliation Hasta el sol de mañana (1998); in the anthologies (in German) Papayas und Bananens (Editorial BradenAspel, 2002), Soles de papel y tinta (2003) and in Panamá cuenta (2003). In 2005 he published Invisible. He won the José María Sánchez National Story Prize in 1998; and was chosen to represent Panama at the Third Conference of New Storytellers from Latin America and Spain (Asociación de Funcionarios Culturales Diplomáticos de Colombia y Convenio Andrés Bello). He has published stories in numerous reviews, such as Maga and Letralia.
Rolando Menéndez – Cuba
A History of Art graduate, he has written three short story collections: Alguien se va lamiendo todo (David de Cuba Prize, 1990), El derecho al pataleo de los ahorcados (Casa de las Américas de Cuba Prize, 1997) and De modo que esto es la muerte (Lengua de trapo, 2002); and a novel, La piel de Inesa (Lengua de Trapo de Narrativa Prize, 1999). His writing has appeared in numerous anthologies in America.
Santiago Nazarian – Brazil
Writer and translator, he has published Olivio, Feriado de mim mesmo, A morte sem nome. With Olivio he won the Conrado Wessel Foundation Literature Prize in 2003.
Guadalupe Nettel – Mexico
(Mexico) Guadalupe Nettel (Mexico City, 1973) is the author of the novels El huésped (shortlisted for the 2005 Herralde Prize) and her later and celebrated books The Body Where I Was Born and Natural Histories. She has also written El matrimonio de los peces rojos (Ribera del Duero International Short Fiction Award). Her work has been translated into more than ten languages. Her books have also obtained many awards, including the Gilberto Owen National Fiction Prize, the Antonin Artaud award and the Anna Seghers Prize. Her latest novel, Después del invierno, won the 2014 Herralde Novel Prize.
Andrés Neuman – Argentina
Andrés Neuman was born in Argentina and has written five novels, as well as several books of short stories and poems. At 22 he published his first novel, Bariloche, which was shortlisted for the Herralde Prize and chosen as one of the best new books by leading Spanish daily ABC. Traveller of the Century won the Alfaguara Prize in 2009, as well as the Tormenta and the Spanish Literary Critics’ Association’s prize. His books have been translated into 23 languages. In addition to his work as a writer, he posts a literary blog Microrréplicas.
Ena Lucía Portela – Cuba
A graduate of Classical Language and Literature from the University of Havana. She has written El pájaro: pincel y tinta china (novel, Cirilo Villaverde de la UENAC Prize, 1997), Una extraña entre las piedras (short stories, 1999), El viejo, el asesino y yo (short stories, Juan Rulfo Prize, 1999), La sombra del caminante (novel, 2001), Cien botellas en una pared (novel, Jaén de Novela Prize, 2002) and Alguna enfermedad muy grave (short stories, 2006). His works have been translated into several languages and published in Cuba, Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, Poland and Holland. His writing (short stories, essays, interviews, literary criticism, fragments of novels) has appeared in various anthologies, and in reviews and other periodical publications, both in Cuba and abroad. She lives in Havana.
Pilar Quintana – Colombia
She studied Journalism at the Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá. Cosquillas en la Lengua was her first novel, followed by Coleccionistas de polvos raros. She will release a new book called The Dog on January 2018.
José Pérez Reyes – Paraguay
Lawyer, storyteller and teacher of Literary Workshops. He followed undergraduate and graduate studies at the Colegio Dante Alighieri in the Paraguyan capital, where he held the position of vice-president and later president of the Academia Literaria. His literary works have been publishd in the student review Inquietudes and Cultura, among other media. Founding member and vice-president of Artes, Ciencias y Letras in Paraguay from 1993 to 1995. He represented the 90s generation of storytellers arising after the fall of dictatorship. His best-known work is Ladrillos del Tiempo.
Santiago Roncagliolo – Peru
(Lima, Peru, 1975). Peruvian writer. Aged two, his family was deported to Mexico by the military government. Returning to Peru years later, he published his first children’s novels and his first play, Tus amigos nunca te harían daño, which has been staged in several countries. In the year 2000 he moved to Madrid and from there to Barcelona where he currently lives. Since arriving in Spain he has worked as a screenplay writer, translator and journalist, and has gained considerable success with his novels. His novel Abril Rojo (2006) made him the youngest ever winner of the Alfaguara Novel Prize. He has translated works by Genet, Gide, Theroux and others. In the year 2010 he was included by Granta on their list of Best Spanish Writers under 35, and in 2013 won the Barco de Vapor Prize for his children’s novel, El gran escape. In 2018 he published Los peores partidos de mi vida, a children’s book about football, illustrated by Víctor Aguilar.
Ricardo Silva Romero – Colombia
(Bogotá, 1975) Writer. Columnist for El Tiempo and El País in Spain. He is author of the novels Relato de Navidad en La Gran Vía (2001), Walkman (2002), Tic (2003), Parece que va a llover (2005), Fin (2005), El hombre de los mil nombres (2006), Autogol (2009), Comedia romántica (2012), El Espantapájaros (2012), El libro de la envidia (2014) and Historia oficial del amor (2016). He has also published the short story collections Sobre la tela de una araña (1999), Semejante a la vida (2011) and Que no me miren (2011), as well as poetry collections Terranía (2004) and El libro de los ojos (2013). Visit his website at www.ricardosilvaromero.com. He was film critic for Semana from 2000 to 2012.
Veronica Stigger – Brazil
Studied Journalism, and holds a doctorate in Art Theory and Criticism from the USP. She works as an academic researcher. Since 2001 she has lived in São Paulo. O trágico e otras comédias, her most famous work, came out in 2003, and was published in Brazil the following year.
Karla Suárez – Cuba
A computer science engineer, she has contributed to various anthologies published in Cuba, Spain and Italy, among them Líneas Aéreas (Lengua de Trapo). Several of her stories have appeared in reviews in Mexico, Argentina and Cuba. Her story Aniversario was adapted for the stage in 1996. She is a member of the Asociación Hermanos Saiz de Cuba (Association of Young Artists). Silencios is her first novel, and was awarded the Fifth Lengua de Trapo Prize.
Ivan Thays – Peru
(Lima, Peru, 1968) Iván Thays is a storyteller, novelist and university lecturer. He studied Linguistics and Literature at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Peru. He won the 2000 Príncipe Claus Prize for his contributions to culture; he has written a book of short stories Las fotografías de Frances Farmer and novels such as Un lugar llamado Oreja de Perro (2009) and Un sueño fugaz (2011). He presented the literary television programme Vano Oficio for seven years and now writes the contemporary literature blog Moleskine Literario. In 2007 he was chosen as one of the best young Latin American writers as part of Bogotá39.
Antonio Ungar – Colombia
Trained as an architect, he also studied Comparative Literature. He has lived in Manchester and in the Colombian rainforest, and is currently based in Barcelona.He has published a short story collection called Trece circos comunes (Norma, 2000) and a book of imprecise classification entitled De ciertos animales tristes (Norma, 2000), as well as Zanahorias voladoras (Alfaguara, 2004) and Las orejas del lobo (2006). In 2010 he won the Herralde Prize with the novel Tres ataúdes blancos.
Leonardo Valencia – Ecuador
The son of an Ecuadorian father and an Italian mother. His best-known works include El desterrado and La luna nómada. He is one of the country's foremost writers.
Juan Gabriel Vásquez – Colombia
(Bogota, 1973) Writer, translator and journalist. He is the author of the short story collection Los amantes de Todos los Santos and the novels The Informers (2004), The Secret History of Costaguana (Qwerty Prize in Barcelona and the Libros&Letras Foundation Prize in Bogotá), The Sound of Things Falling (2011 Alfaguara Prize, 2012 English Pen Award, 2013 Gregor von Rezzori Prize, 2014 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award) and Reputations (2014 Real Academia Española Award and the 2014 Archbishop Juan de San Clemente Prize). He has also published a collection of literary essays, El arte de la distorsión, and a biography of Joseph Conrad, El hombre de ninguna parte. He has translated work by John Hersey, John Dos Passos, Victor Hugo and E. M. Forster, among others. He has won the Simón Bolívar National Journalism Prize twice. In 2012 he won the French Roger Caillois Prize for his body of work. His books have been published in 26 languages and in more than 40 countries. La forma de las ruinas (2015) is his fifth novel. In 2018 he published the collection of essays Viajes con un mapa en blanco.
Jorge Volpi – Mexico
Is a graduate in Law and holds a Masters in Mexican Literature from the UNAM, as well as a doctorate in Spanish Philology from the University of Salamanca. He is currently the director of the Festival Internacional Cervantino and coordinator at UNAM. He is author of the novels A pesar del oscuro silencio (Joaquín Mortiz, 1992; Planeta, 2000), Días de ira, in Tres bosquejos del mal (Siglo XXI, 1994; Muchnik Editores, 2000), La paz de los sepulcros (Aldus, 1995; Seix Barral, 2007), El temperamento melancólico (Nueva Imagen, 1996; Seix Barral, 2004), Sanar tu piel amarga (Nueva Imagen, 1997; Algaida, 2004) and El juego del Apocalipsis (DeBolsillo, 2000) and of the essays La imaginación y el poder. Una historia intelectual de 1968 (Editorial Era, 1998) and La guerra y las palabras. Una historia del alzamiento zapatista (Editorial Era in Mexico and Seix Barral in Spain, 2004). His latest novel is Examen de mi padre (Penguin Random House, 2016).
Alejandro Zambra – Chile
(Chile, 1975) Alejandro Zambra has published poetry books Bahía inútil and Mudanza, the essay collection No leer and the novels Bonsái, La vida privada de los árboles and Formas de volver a casa and the short story collection Mis documentos. His work has been translated into several languages and some of them have appeared in magazines such as The New Yorker, The Paris Review and Harper’s, amongst others. In 2008 he was selected to participate in Bogota39 and in 2011 in Granta magazine, as one of the best young writers in Spanish. He is currently Professor of Literature at Diego Portales University. His most recent work is Facsímil (2014). In 2018 Anagrama published a revised version of No leer.
Slavko Zupcic – Venezuela
Holds a doctorate in the History of Science from the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. He has participated in many international writers' conferences (Literature and Commitment Youth Forum, Mollina, Spain, 1993; International Workshop for Young Latin American Writers, 1994).
His works are included in various anthologies of the Venezuelan short story. He has published Dragi Sol (1989); Vinko Spolovtiva, ¿quién te mató? (1990); 583104: pizzas pizzas pizzas (1995), and Barbie (1995). He has received several awards: the Bienal de Literatura Infantil (Valencia, 1987), the Bienal José Rafael Pocaterra (Valencia,1988), and the Mención Honorífica de la Bienal de Literatura de Guayana (1994), among others. He lives in Caracas.