Velia Vidal (Bahía Solano, Colombia, 1982) is a writer who loves the sea and shared readings. The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency 2026. She was BBC 100 Women 2022: list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world. She was awarded a British Library Eccles Centre Fellowship as a result of her application for the Eccles Centre Writers’ Prize 2023. Researcher Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Research on Latin America at the British Museum SDCELAR with Afluentes project. She is Columnist Cambio Magazine. She published Kákiri, Kákiri (Lumen, 2025), Diez lunas para una espera (Beascoa, 2024), Cuerpos de agua (Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2024), Chocó: selva, Lluvia, río y mar (Lazo libros, 2023) y Para vernos mejor (Laguna libros, 2022). In 2021 she participated in the project Volver a contar, of the Hay Festival and SDCELAR. In this project she published the short story Otilio, as part of the book Volver a contar (Anagrama, 2022), Untold Microcosms (Charco press, 2022). In 2021 she was a fellow at Atelier Josepha Ahrenshoop, in Germany. For her book Aguas de estuario (Laguna Libros, 2020; translated to English like Tidal Waters, Charco Press, 2024) she won the Afro-Colombian Authors Publication Grant awarded by Colombia’s Ministry of Culture. She is the co-author of Oír somos río (2019) and its bilingual German-Spanish edition (Grindwal Kollektiv, 2021). She published the children’s story Bajo el yarumo, as part of the Maletín de relatos pacíficos collection (Instituto Caro y Cuervo, Fondo Acción, 2017). She is the founder and director of the Motete Educational and Cultural Corporation and the Chocó Reading and Writing Festival (FLECHO). Vidal graduated in Afro-Latin American Studies and has a Masters in Reading Education and Children’s Literature. She is also a journalist and specialist in social management and communication.
Photo credit: Karin Richter