Writers

Ángel Antonio Ruiz Laboy

Puerto Rico. Graduated from the UPR and NYU. Author of the poetry collections: Anzuelos y carnadas (2009), El tiempo de los escarabajos (Erizo Editorial, 2011), Hemisferio de la sombra (Editorial ICP, 2014) and Canto a la Ceniza (Isla Negra, 2016). He has received the National Poetry Award of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture (2012), the New Voices Award of the Festival de la Palabra (2012), the first place at the International House of Poets Competition (2013) and the first place at the National Poetry Competition of El Nuevo Día (2015).

Janilka Romero

Puerto Rico. Actress, director and playwright. She has a BA in acting from the University of Puerto Rico. Her acting credits include: Lo que nos dejó (LATA award), The Foolish Lady, The Crucible, Yerma, When I Was Puerto Rican. Director: Mr. Mr. & Dr. Dr. (Best Production award – FUERZAfest), Wait (FTE 2016). Playwright: Moiras (2011), Wait (2016). She is part of IATI’s play development program, Cimientos (2019). Her literary work has been published in magazines such as Trasuntos, Caminos Convergentes, Ingenios, and Nagari.

Natasha Tiniacos

Venezuela. She has published two books of poems Historia privada de un etcétera (2011, 2016), finalist in the Grand Prix Littéraire of the Association of Caribbean Writers, and Mujer a fuego lento (2006), that won the National Literature University Prize in Caracas. Tiniacos has been recipient of artist residencies from the International Writing Program of the University of Iowa, IW (2014); Vermont Studio Center, VT (2014); Centre d’Art Marnay Art Centre, France (2009); and a grant from the US Department of States’ Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs. Currently she works lecturing at NYU and CUNY, and she is artist-in-residency of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council with a Su-Casa grant, a poetry workshop in Spanish for seniors of the Washington Heights community.

Salomé Benalcazar

Ecuador. Writer and actress. She earned her BA in Drama and Performing Arts from the Universidad Central del Ecuador. She has supplemented her education with several courses and seminars on Creative Writing, and Spanish and Latin American Literature in both Quito and Bogotá. She has collaborated in many theater and radio productions, as well as community literary projects. Her short stories “Primera vez” and “Historias de ida” are part of the anthology “Alteraciones”. She is currently completing her MFA in Creative Writing at NYU.

Yoseli Castillo

República Dominicana. She migrated to the United States at 16. She holds a BA in Psychology and an MA in Spanish Literature. She is a bilingual-afro-dominican-latina-lesbian poet-activist-teacher-aunt. She is a Cave Canem alumnus. Her poems and short stories have appeared in various anthologies and online magazines in New York, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Santo Domingo. Her self-published poetry book, De eso sí se habla/Of That, I Speak, is on sale at cyoseli@yahoo.com

Eric Barenboim

Argentina. He participated in the Argentine Slam of Oral Poetry between 2011 and 2015. He created la Justa Poética Slam in 2016. He made experimental literature online on Facebook and Mercado Libre. For five years he worked with the writer and musician Luis Pescetti. «Suárez in Kosovo,» his first novel, won the prize of the Bienal de Arte Joven in Buenos Aires in 2017. Since 2018 he has been part of the Creative Writing Program in Spanish at NYU. In 2019, his play «Hipólita pondera la Conquista» participated in the DramaLab at the King Juan Carlos I Center.

Laura Rojas

Colombia. She is a journalist and writer. She studied literature at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and completed a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing at New York University (NYU). She is currently pursuing a doctorate in Spanish at the same university. In 2019, she published her first book of poetry, Crujir insecto (Alayubia Editions)..

Amelia Bande

Chile. Brooklyn-based artist, writer, and performer. She creates live capsules of intimacy, low-fi musicals, performing alone and with others. Her work has been shown at Artists Space, The Poetry Project, Storm King Arts Center, Tang Museum, MoMA Library, MIX NYC, Participant, and more. She has been an artist in residence at WORM Filmwerkplaats, The Shandaken Project, Yaddo, and FIAR. Her chapbook The Clothes We Wear was published by Belladonna in 2017. Amelia teaches Spanish at CUNY and NYU

Leni Flores

Bolivia. She studied Filosofía y Letras. At the same time, she founded and edited the magazine «Pierrot». After completing her studies, she became part of the editorial team of the Canata arts research magazine associated with the Secretary of Culture of her city, Cochabamba (Bolivia). Her short story «Ella», winner of the second prize of the Franz Tamayo short story, was published by the 3600 publishing house. She is currently studying the MFA of Creative Writing in Spanish at NYU and writes fiction.

Mana Bugallo

(Argentina) Mariana “Mana” Bugallo is an Argentinian writer, performer, and singer. She combines poetry, satire, and music to convey both individual self-conscious humor and collective experience. She has published two poetry books, is part of the duo Boca de Buzón, and she has also performed in Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the US. Recently, she was part of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics’ EmergeNYC 2019.

Gabriel Carle

Puerto Rico. He studied Creative Writing at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. On two occasions he won the First Prize in Cuento in the Certamen Literario de la Facultad de Humanidades (with “Tratado de una sexualidad inconforme” in 2013 and “Triángulo escaleno, o Los filis que nos unen” in 2016). He has published in Diálogo Digital, Revista 80 Grados, [In]Genios, Tonguas, Cruse, Catedral Tomada, Aurora Boreal, among others. In 2018 he began his Master’s degree in Creative Writing in Spanish at NYU and published his first collection of short stories, «Mala leche» (Alayubia). In 2019, his manuscript «Abisal» won first place in the Literary Award Escritura Revuelta of the University of Houston

Guillermo Severiche

(Argentina) He holds a Bachelor’s in Modern Literatures from Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Mendoza, Argentina) as well as an M.A. in Hispanic Studies and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, LA). In 2016, he moved to New York to complete an M.F.A. in Creative Writing in Spanish at NYU. As a writer, he has published short stories and essays in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Spain, and Chile. He has been granted several fellowships to complete research for his work as a writer and scholar and to participate in artistic and academic events in Turkey (Bilgi University, 2012), Cuba (Festival de Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano, 2014), and Bolivia (Colectivo Ch’ixi, 2017), among others. He was one of the recipients of the 2019 New Works Grant provided by the Queens Council on the Arts. Currently, he teaches at Fordham University, Lincoln Center campus.

Camila Rivera

República Dominicana. She studied Philosophy and Humanities in Centro Filosófico Bonó. She is a poet, a hermeneutic and a woman. She published her first book, Distintos tipos de muerte, in 2015 with Ediciones Moñohecho. She is working towards her MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish at NYU.

Alejandra Ramos

Puerto Rico. Playwright, actress, director, and producer. She holds a Bachelor’s in Dance and Theater, from the University of Puerto Rico, as well as an M.A. in Performing Arts from the University of Murcia (Spain). Co-founder and artistic director of Teatro la azotea, Inc. Author of En la azotea, 10 piezas cortas de teatro. Other published work includes her short play Ramiro in the Online Magazine Falso Mutis (San Juan, PR), and her play En blanco as part of the anthology Puerto Rico Off:Teatro y Performance Fronterizos (Miami: Ed. Hypermedia, 2020). She has participated in International and National Theater Festivals such as Casa Las Américas (La Habana, Cuba 2010) International Short Play Festival at Teatro Circo, (Murcia, Spain 2013), Fuerza Fest 2019 at Julia de Burgos Arts and Performance Center, among others. Former Playwriting Professor at the University of Puerto Rico (2017). Currently, she works as the Art Program and Digital Humanities Coordinator for the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, CUNY as the Art Program and Digital Humanities Coordinator.

Juan de Dios Sánchez Jurado

Colombia. He’s is a writer and lawyer, founder and director of the virtual magazine www.cabezadegato.com. Some of his chronicles and columns have appeared in Colombian newspapers such as El Universal and El Espectador. Some of his stories have been awarded in literary competitions, including Stadt: Stories of the Big City (2015) and The Brazil of Dreams (2014). Other stories of his have been published in literary anthologies, among them, Anthology of short stories from the Colombian Caribbean, published by the University of Córdoba and the Letter with Blood, published by the group A 6 manos. He recently graduated from the Master in Creative Writing at NYU. He is currently a Spanish university professor and prepares the publication of his first novel.

Daniela Trabuchi

Argentina. Borned in Ushuaia. She holds a degree in Literature and Linguistics from Universidad de Buenos Aires. She works as a teacher, writer, and coordinator of literary workshops. She has collaborated with Anfibia Magazine, and her literary work has been published in Metaphor Magazine, and in the short story anthology Apología, among others.

João Nemi Neto

Brasil. writer and teacher. He writes about pedagogy, queer theory, and visual media. His book “Anthropophagic Queer: Brazilian Contemporary Cinema” is coming out in 2020 published by Wayne State University Press). He is also a poet who writes and performs as João Maria Cícero. His first book “Corpo(s)” (2016) was published by Giostri Editores in São Paulo. He collaborated with a collective of Latin American writers for The US without us (Sangria Editores 2015), published in New York and Santiago, Chile, and “Tente Entender o que tento dizer. Poesia: HIV/ AIDS” organized by the poet Ramon Nunes Melo. He is also the editor with Katia Bandeira de Melo Gerlach of the literary journal ‘aosnovoiorquinos’ currently in its second issue. He maintains his work open to all at www.joaomariacicero.com

Micaela Paredes Barraza

(Santiago, Chile. 1993) Bachelor in Hispanic Literature, P. Universidad Católica de Chile. She has published two books of poems, Nocturnal (2017) and Ceremonias de interior (2019), both by Cerrojo Ediciones, Chile. She has been awarded in multiple instances, including the UC Literary Contest in 2014 and 2015, and an honorable mention in the Roberto Bolaño Prize, Culture Ministry of Chile, 2014. Some of her poems have been published in creative magazines in Chile, Spain, Venezuela, and Peru. She is co-editor of poetry magazine América Invertida, published in New York. She is currently studying the Master of Creative Writing In Spanish at NYU.

Arelis Uribe

Arelis Uribe is a Chilean journalist and writer. In 2016, she published her fiction debut, Quiltras, which won the Chilean Ministry of Culture’s annual prize for best book of short stories and was named one the best Latin American books of the year by the New York Times. In 2017, she published Que explote todo, an anthology of her opinion columns. She was director of communications at the feminist organization OCAC, which promoted a law against sexual street harassment in Chile. In 2019, she self-published the zine Cosas que pienso mientras fumo marihuana and founded Editorial Negra, her pocket-format poetry imprint. Currently, she is composing songs and studying for a master’s in creative writing at New York University.

Débora Benacot

Débora Benacot (Argentina) holds a Spanish Language and Literature degree (UNCuyo). She has published the books Ácaros al sol (Fundíbulo Ediciones, 2011), Pirsin (Vendimia Poetry Award, Ediciones Culturales de Mendoza, 2012), En las fotos todavía corre el viento (Fundíbulo Ediciones, 2017), La esperatriz (elandamio ediciones, 2018) in poetry and Escrito en un grano de arroz (2014) in flash fiction. She has participated in various national and international anthologies. Her poems have been published in magazines such as Serendipia, El Alambique, Duende, Metamorphoses, Sonora Review, and Apple Valley Review. Some of her work has been translated into English, French and Icelandic. She lives in California since 2017.

Yaissa Jiménez

Yaissa Jiménez (Santo Domingo, 1986) is a writer, poet, performer and scriptwriter addicted to observation. Ghost writer, editor, reviewer and content developer. Music reviewer in the platform specialized in alternative music, discolai.com. She writes opinion essays and analysis from a racial perspective in the platform contranarrativas.org. Her essays and opinion pieces explore: afro-descendants, caribbean issues,
feminism and environmental protection.

«Papaya Ritual» (2018) is her first book, a compendium of rude, “isleña” and syncretic poetry. The poems of “Ritual Papaya” have also been part of anthologies such as “Isla Escrita,” by Amargot Ediciones (Spain), “Liberoamericanas” (compendium of Latin American writers) and “The Sea Needs no Ornament” (bilingual anthology, English and Spanish, Caribbean writers). Her poems have also been shared in literary encounters such as the Dominican Writers Conference in New York ‘Dominican.ish’, Puerto Rico Book Fair 2019, Dominican Republic Book Fair 2019, Marginal Fair of the Dominican Republic 2019.

Clairette Atri

Mexico. Poet and Dramatist. Graduated from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (BS in Psychology) and New York University (MFA in Creative Writing). She presented her play “Nunca estás y estás” at King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center in 2019 as part of DramaLab. Her first poetry collection, “De la boca de mi madre” (en construcción), explores the intergenerational historical-emotional amnesia of Arab-Jews (in Mexico). She is currently pursuing a doctorate in Critical Social / Personality Psychology at CUNY where she urges/pushes for poetry and poetic inquiry as methodology and epistemology in Social Sciences.

Nadia Villafuerte

Mexico, 1978. Nadia Villafuerte is a fiction writer who has published two books of short stories: Barcos en Houston (2005) and ¿Te gusta el látex, cielo? (2008), and the novel Por el lado salvaje (2011). She is included in the anthologies Mexico 20: New Voices, Old Traditions (Pushkin Press, 2015), Palabras mayores, nueva narrativa mexicana (Malpaso Ediciones, 2015), and more recently in the magazines World Literature Today, Latin American Literature Today, among others.

Michel Nieva

Michel Nieva was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of Buenos Aires and now he is a Ph.D. candidate in the Spanish and Portuguese program at NYU. In 2021 he was chosen by Granta magazine as one of the best writers in Spanish under 35 years. He is the author of the poetry collection Papelera de reciclaje, and the novels ¿Sueñan los gauchoides con ñandúes eléctricos?, Ascenso y apogeo del imperio argentino and the essay collection Tecnología y barbarie. Ocho ensayos sobre monos, virus, bacterias, escritura no humana y ciencia ficción. He also wrote the script of the videogame based on his books Elige tu propio gauchoide (https://www.pungas.space/gauchoide/). His work has been translated to English, Bulgarian and Italian.

Lena Retamoso

Retamoso Urbano is a poet and a scholar of contemporary Latin American literature and culture. She has published academic articles on the works of Tirso de Molina, César Moro, and Luis Cernuda. In parallel to her scholarly research, she has published two volumes of poetry, Milagros de ausencia(Miracles of Absence) (2002) and Blanco es el sueño de la noche (White is the Dream of the Night) (2008). Her poetry and short stories have been published in literary journals in the USA, Peru, Brazil, Spain, and France. PhD in Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures, The Graduate Center of New York; MA in Spanish, The City University of New York; BA in Linguistics and Literature, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Retamoso Urbano is currently a Lecturer of Spanish at the United Coast Guard Academy.

Huáscar Robles

Writer and journalist Huáscar Robles weaves between fiction and nonfiction narratives around neoliberal technologies, gender and reggeatton. His most recent publications include the memoir Puertos príncipes: temblemos todos (La Cifra), and the upcoming novel Los demonios que vuelven (Secta de los perros), He currently works an English-language book of short stories The Penultimate Days.

As an investigative journalist, he’s covered post-quake Haiti, Puerto Rico and the LGTQ community. He has been published in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and The Center for Investigative Journalism. He was a columnist for El Nuevo Día for a decade and the producer of Catatonia, about Puerto Rico after Hurricane María. His broadcast journalism includes sections and commentary for CNN and NY1. His photography and documentaries have been featured Columbia University, AS220 and Sacred Heart University.

A recipient of The Dart Center’s Ochberg Fellowship, the Center for Justice and Journalism’s Urban Fellowship, the AS220’s Artist in Residence, and the Brunetto’s School cultural exchange fellowship in Brazil, Robles has lectured at NYU, Columbia University and University of Mexico.

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Jacqueline Herranz

Jacqueline Herranz Brooks is a queer Cuban author and multidisciplinary artist based in New York. Her work is project-based and it merges research, documentary photography, soundscape interpretation, and urban interventions in multimedia installations. Jacqueline, who is interested in the process of fictionalization of memory and in the creations of intellectual personas, is the author of several books of autofiction among them Liquid Days (Argentina, 1997), Escenas para Turistas (New York, 2003), Mujeres sin Trama (New York, 2011) y Viaje en Almendrón (Installation book for Gallery Miller, 2015). Jacqueline’s writing projects and research methods are informed by the counterhegemonic-experimental aesthetics of the New York Latinx hybrid practices.

Regina Grisolia

Regina Grisolia is a writer from Rafaela (Santa Fe, Argentina), currently in New York studying the MFA Creative Writing in Spanish. She is a feminist activist, and also works as a screenwriter and journalist. For 10 years she was part of the Cooperative Mural Comunicación, a popular and alternative communication project in the city of Rafaela. She has won prizes for poetic and narrative works and has published in anthologies at the local, national and international levels. She prepares the publication of her first book, Poesía cruda para lo días al horno (premiado por el Fondo Editorial Municipal en el 2019), as part of an editorial project led by a women’s collective.

Wilmiriam Cotto Castellano

Wilmiriam Cotto Castellano (San Juan, Puerto Rico. 1992) Graduated from New York University (NYU) with a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing in Spanish where she is currently visiting professor of Spanish. She has a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis in Creative Writing in English from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. Her current work seeks a connection and understanding of multigenerational traumas within the family nucleus through an idiomatic journey through Spanglish. Her work has appeared in the anthology Un Nuevo Pulmón (La Secta de los Perros, 2015), Cruce Magazine, Tonguas, Temporales Magazine and the zine Florali

Braulio Basilio

Braulio Basilio is a Chilean actor, writer and director, currently based in New York City, graduated from the theater school of the Universidad Bolivariana de Chile. Since 2008 he has participated in renowned theater pieces in Chile that also led him to perform in other South American countries such as Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay and Bolivia. As a writer, the work “CAMBIO” stands out as a monologue winner of an ATI award and “LA CLASE, a teacher’s thesis” as well as children’s works such as “NARICES ROJAS” and “MI ABUELO EL QUIJOTE”

Roger Santivanez

He was born in Piura, north coast of Peru. He studied literature at the Universidad de San Marcos in Lima and earned a doctorate in Latin American poetry from Temple University. His most recent publications are “Santa Rosa de Lima” (Dharma Books, México 2021), “Argolis” (Leviatán, Buenos Aires 2021), “Aurelia” (Cartonera del escorpión azul, Madrid 2021) and “Crítica affectiva. Essays on Peruvian and Latin American poetry” (Cinosargo, Mexico and Chile 2021). He was the founder of the state of neo-avant-garde poetic revolt called the Kloaka Movement (1982-1986). He worked for more than twenty years in universities in the United States. He currently lives on the banks of the Cooper River, entirely dedicated to contemplation, writing and the study of the languages of poetry.

Anel Carmona

Anel Carmona is a Mexican multidisciplinary theater artist based in New York. Anel has participated as an actress, playwright and/or producer in dozens of plays throughout North America. Among her theatrical works, Adios Fjord (Off-Broadway, Theater at Gibney), Ice Cream Fro-Yo (Hudson Guild Theater), The Church of the Winter (Gene Frankel Theater), and Chocolate en la Estación (Theater at Gibney Jaime Torres Bodet) stand out. In 2020, her work on COVID Six Feet Away was premiered virtually in the cities of Tabasco, in Mexico, and Alberta, in Canada. This work was published in the anthology De Pandemia a Pandemonium on the Mexican Dramaturgy platform.

Zaida Corniel

Author of the short story collection Para adolescentes, premenopáusicas y especialistas de la salud. Actor, a Lecturer of Spanish and Caribbean Literature and its diaspora at Stony Brook University. She has worked as a cultural editor and published extensively in various Dominican magazines and newspapers. Her work has been included in the journals Estudios Sociales, Guaraguao, Caudal, Vetas, and on Hanging Out, Bilingual Publication of Essays and Creative Writing by Caribbean Authors, among others. Two of her plays, De mujeres and Ay Fefa, Where is the Wind?, has been staged in the United States and the Dominican Republic.

Pierina Pighi

Pierina Pighi Bel is from Perú. She studied Communication and has worked as a journalist since 2012 for outlets like El Comercio, Lima, and the BBC Spanish Service in its Miami office for more than five years. One of her stories was included in an anthology about boredom called “Hastío” and published in Peru. She is currently studying for an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish at New York University (NYU), and she is preparing a book of short stories and a collection of poems.

Andrea Velasco

Chilean actress, director, writer and singer, BA in Theater. She stands out for her performance for more than 10 years in TV productions in Chile. In cinema for her role in the Que Pena trilogy on Netflix, the short film Desde el Principio on HBO and in music for her album Piñata.

2018 debuts in the NY theater in Verano Verano by Myrna Casas, directed by Jorge Merced, IATI Theater (best actress at ATI Awards 2019). For her role in the short film Desde el Principio (From the top) by Miguel Soliman HBO, she won best actress at the Rahway Film Festival, LA Diversity Film Festival and New York Latino Film Festival 2018. For her subsequent performances in theater she is recognized at ACE, HOLA, LATA and ATI awards 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

As a Playwright, her work Crucidrama 2003 won the IV Festival of Brief Dramaturgy, Chile. El Sobre Azul 2008 won an honorable mention in the XIII Chilean National Dramaturgy Contest and Showcase, El ultimo show 2020 was finalist in the XIX Chilean National Dramaturgy Contest and Showcase.
In 2018 he published her first poetry book Dormancia by Mago Editores, which was later launched in Mexico by Librería del Ermitaño and at Berl’s Poetry Bookstore in Brooklyn, New York.

Andrea currently plays the leading role in Eva Luna, the new theatrical adaptation of Isabel Allende’s book, by Teatro Repertorio Español NYC. Is preparing her second musical album, and working on a storybook.

Juana M. Ramos

Juana M. Ramos was born in Santa Ana, El Salvador, and currently lives in New York City where she is a professor of Spanish and literature at York College, CUNY. She has participated in international conferences, colloquia, poetry festivals and recitals in Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Cuba, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Argentina, Guatemala, and Spain. She has published several books of poetry: Multiplicada en mí (Artepoética Press, 2010; revised and augmented second edition, 2014); Palabras al borde de mis labios (miCieloediciones, 2014), En la batalla (Proyecto editorial La Chifurnia, 2016), Ruta 51C (Proyecto Editorial La Chifurnia, 2017) Sobre luciérnagas (Proyecto Editorial La Chifurnia, 2019) and Sin ambages/To the Point (Cuadernos Negros Editorial, 2020)

Fátima Vélez

Fátima Vélez is a writer, professor, PhD candidate, and cultural producer from Manizales (Colombia). She holds an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish from NYU. She has published the collection of poems Casa Paterna, Del Porno y las babosas, Diseño de Interiores, and the novel Galápagos. She co-created the artist residency Residencia en la tierra in the coffee region of Colombia. She curated and produced the Latin- American poetry series in ID Studio Theater, in the South Bronx, New York.  She lives in Sunnyside, Queens.

Diego Alberdi

(México, Guadalajara. 1992) Fiction and poetry writer. He graduated in Communication Studies from ITESO and has an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish from New York University. He worked as an editor for Revista Temporales. His poem Infinitivo was published in Antesis (2016) by Jardinería and his work Sin domicilio fijo was featured in Atemporales (2019). He has been published in newspapers and magazines such as Latin American Literary Review, El Sudcaliforniano, and Cabeza de gato. He is currently working as a professor at Lehman College in the Bronx.

Estefanía Carvajal Restrepo

(Colombia) Journalist graduated from the University of Antioquia. She worked in the newsrooms of El Tiempo and El Colombiano. In 2017, Angosta Editores published her first non-fiction book, Niebla en la yarda, which won the national award for Best Thesis from the Círculo de Periodistas de Bogotá in April 2016. She has published chronicles and short stories in anthologies by Colombian writers, such as Puntos de Vista, published in 2019 by Tragaluz Editores, Mesaestándar, and Angosta Editores. She is about to graduate from the Master of Creative Writing in Spanish at NYU.

Marcia Mendieta Estenssoro

Marcia Mendieta Estenssoro (Bolivia, 1992) is a poet and fiction writer. She completed the Diploma in Creative Writing at Universidad Privada de Santa Cruz de la Sierra and the writing summer program offered by Casa de Letras de Buenos Aires. She has an MFA. in Creative Writing from New York University (NYU).

Since 2015 she has been part of the poetry workshop “Llamarada Verde”. In 2017, she published the poetry book La casa que nos habita. She has participated in poetry festivals and events in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, New York, Buenos Aires and San Cristobal de las Casas (Mexico). She has also participated in a residence for young poets held in Rosario (Argentina). Some of her work has been published in magazines and anthologies from Bolivia, Argentina, Perú, Mexico, Uruguay, Spain, and China. She was editor of the poetry section of NYU Temporales Magazine. She is currently part of the production and content team of the podcast “Tufillo de Poeta”.

Héctor Celis

(Colombia) Journalist graduated from Héctor Manuel Celis Martínez studied Art Theory at the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana in Mexico City (2004-2009) with a study residency in contemporary art and literature at the University of Bologna in Italy (2007). He was a FONCA Jóvenes-Creadores Fellow in the short story category (2012) and a FONCA-CONACYT Fellow for studies abroad (2012-2014). Master in Comparative Literature from the National University of Mexico (2012-2014). Master of Creative Writing in Spanish at NYU (2014-2016). He is currently pursuing his doctoral studies at this same university and writing his first novel..

Mariana Graciano

Mariana Graciano (Rosario, 1982) studied Literature at the University of Buenos Aires, completed a master’s degree in Creative Writing at NYU and a doctorate at The Graduate Center (CUNY) in New York City, where she has lived since 2010 teaching literature and leading literary workshops. Her texts have been published in magazines in Latin America and the United States. Her first book of short stories «La visita» (Demipage, 2013) earned her the recognition of Fnac Talent in Spain. Her nouvelle «Pasajes» has two editions in Spanish and one in English (Passages). In 2018 she received the Artist-in-Residence Award from the Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC). She is currently a participating author in the PEN / Faulkner Writers in Schools program and a professor at Pace University.

Pablo García Gámez

Pablo García Gámez is from Caracas, Venezuela. As a playwright, some of his pieces produced are “Cariaquito Morao”, “Blanco”, “Noche tan linda,” “Olvidadas,” and “Yo no soy Lupita,” among others. He is the author of the works for children: “La luna me está mirando” (2000), and “A contar cuentos: el legado de José Martí” (2001), among other pieces.In 2016 “Olvidadas” wins the Abniel Marat dramaturgy award at FuerzaFest and was published in September 2019 in “Teatro Latino: New plays from the United States.” In 2017 “Oscuro, de noche” is awarded with the Apacuana National Dramaturgy Award in Venezuela and is published in the anthology “Apacuana.” (Ed. El perro y la rana)Pablo has participated in the International Colloquium on Latinos in the United States, Casa de las Américas. In 2020 he is an instructor in the Rodolfo Santana Distance Dramaturgy Workshop for the Compañía Nacional de Teatro, Venezuela.

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Fernando Viera

Fernando Vieira is an Ecuadorian-born New York-based writer, director, and performer. He debuted as a stage writer and director with the Spanish-language monologue “Me voy porque puedo” in 2016. He has written plays, short stories, and screenplays. His two most recent plays include “Goodbye, Little George” (2020) and “Anormales” (2020). He recently presented a short documentary called “Unlabeled”(2020), where he discusses gender identity. He is currently working on a feature film script called “Ciudad Perdida,” which he plans to shoot in Ecuador, and he is also completing his first novel. Awards/Recognition include two LATIN ACE awards and being selected as part of artistic cohorts at NYFA, Creative Capital, and Leslie-Lohman Museum. Fernando earned a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American Studies

Odi Gonzales

Born in Cusco (Peru), Odi Gonzales is an award-winning poet, translator, researcher of Andean Oral Tradition (XVI-XXI centuries), and professor in Peru and the US. In 1992, he won the César Vallejo Poetry National Award, and the Poetry Prize of National University of San Marcos (Lima). Gonzales is the author of seven poetry collections: Juego de niños (1989), Valle Sagrado (1993), Almas en pena (1998), Tunupa/El libro de las sirenas (2002), La escuela de Cusco (2005), Valle sagrado/Almas en pena (2008, 2nd. edition), Avenida sol/Greenwich Village (2009), and Ciudad [c]oral (2017). He has also written research books suchs as El condenado o alma en pena en la tradición oral andina (1995), Taki parwa 22 poemas quechuas de Kilku Warak’a (2000), Elegía Apu Inka Atawallpaman. Primer documento de la resistencia Inka (Siglo XVI) 2014, Walaycho Qorilazo. Memoria oral quechua en los Andes (2017); Quechua, Spanish, English Dictionary (2018). Translated into English by the American poet Lynn Levin, Gonzales published La Escuela de Cusco/Birds on the kiswar tree in a bilingual Spanish and English edition (2Leaf Press, 2014).Since 2008, Gonzales teaches Quechua Language and Culture, and Antropología Lingüistica Andina at New York University.

Natalia Chávez

Born in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. She writes short fiction, non-fiction, poetry and essays. She is currently a second-year Ph.D. student in Spanish Literature and Cultural Studies at Georgetown University in Washington DC. She holds a BA in Communication from UPSA University in Bolivia and an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish from New York University. She has published two short stories books: “Humedad” (2010, National Literary Prize of Santa Cruz de la Sierra’s Municipal Gov.) and “Salmuera” (2019, Mantis Narrativa Ed.). She has published short stories and articles in magazines of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Spain, and the USA.

Gama Valle

Gama is a director, writer and casting professional. He holds an M.F.A in Directing from The New School and a B.A. in Drama from University of Puerto Rico. Gama is a proud member of New Light Theater Project. His first children’s picture book will be published by Editorial Destellos in the fall. He is a recipient of the Van Lier Directing Fellowship at Repertorio Español. Gama received the First Prize in playwriting from Puerto Rico’s Institute of Culture for his play “Queishd&Dilit”. Directing credits include: “The Lesson”, “L’Amfiparnaso”, “I Catch You Dreaming”, “Among Who, Whom and Ever”, “Jump It”, “In Love but Discreet”, “The Girl Who Used to Die Often”. Casting credits include: “The American Tradition”, “The Great Novel”, “Split Second”, “I Wanna Fuck Like Romeo and Juliet”, among others.

Paola Senseve

Paola R. Senseve T. (Santa Cruz, Bolivia, 1987) has published Vaginario (2008, La Hoguera) winner of the II National Prize for New Writers of the Chamber of Books and Petrobras; Soy Dios (2011, La Hoguera) winner of the Santa Cruz de la Sierra National Prize for Literature; Ego (2014, Ediciones Liliputienses, Spain) and Codex Corpus (2020, Editorial 3600) winner of the Yolanda Bedregal 2019 National Poetry Prize.

Rocío Uchofen

Rocío Uchofen (Lima, Peru, 1972) is a writer, poet and cultural promoter. She studied linguistics and literature at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP). She is studying a MA in English at CUNY-CSI. In 2019 she received a micro-residency at NYPL by The Poetry Society and participated in The Americas Poetry Festival of New York. Finalist for the FILLT Award  (TUFTS University 2020) with the testimonial text «Bay Ridge.»  In 2020 she edited two anthologies: “Intervalos: 12 narradoras peruanas” and “Staten Island mi historia/Staten Island my story,” a project that brings together 14 Latino writers with the theme of Staten Island, the latter thanks to a  grant from Staten Island Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA). This year she has received two grants to publish the second version of her narrative project under the name «Todos podemos escribir un cuento» (We all can write a story) and brings together Latin American storytellers with the theme of writing; as well as the publication of a bilingual book in poetic prose titled “Staten Island personal/Personal Staten Island”. She has published the poetry collections Liturgias Clandestinas, El Oscuro laberinto de los sueños and Geometría de la Urbe. The books of short stories Odalia y otros sin esquina and Somewhere in the Labyrinth. Her book of short stories  La irrealidad y sus escombros will be published by the end of the year. She has directed the webzine Híbrido Literario since 2002.  In 2017 she started a cultural radio show called Híbrido Literario on Maker Park Radio, Staten Island, New York.

María Argel

María Alejandra Argel (Montelíbano, Colombia, 1993) studied Literature in Bogotá and is currently studying an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish at NYU. She read some of her poems at Casa Tomada in Bogotá. And was part of Chasquis, a pandemic correspondance project between friends/writers published weekly through a newsletter. She is writing her first novel: a coming of age of a young woman who is searching for the story of a suicidal actress of the 70s. She is also working on a group of poems based on female characters in movies.

Raquel Abend van Dalen

Raquel Abend van Dalen (Caracas, 1989): In 2014, she received her MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish from New York University. In 2016 she was a resident writer in the program for artists at the Camac Centre d’Art (France). She is the author of the novels Cuarto azul and Andor, and the author of the poetry books Sobre las fábricas, Una trinitaria encendida, and La beata de las locas. She recently published a book of short stories entitled La señora Varsovia. Her work has been included in several anthologies. Among them: Escritorxs Salvajes: 37 Hispanic Writers in the United States and Ni Bárbaras ni Malinches. Female writers in the United States. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Creative Writing in Spanish and Art History at the University of Houston.

David Ornelas

David Ornelas (México, 1986) Mexican writer currently based in New York City. He has a BA in Communication from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (Mexico). For more than 8 years he worked at several private and public cultural institutions in Mexico City, including Cineteca Nacional de México. He has published short stories and essays about cinema in Mexican magazines and newspapers, both online and printed. He is currently studying an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish at NYU. Recently, one of his poems was selected to be published in an anthology from La Feria Internacional del Libro de Nueva York. Some of his non fiction stories are published in his Blog “Yo no vendo culebras”. He is a founder member of Volvoreta, an online project that combines illustration and poetry.

Silvina López

Silvina López Medin was born in Buenos Aires and lives in Croton on Hudson, New York. Her books of poetry include: La noche de los bueyes (Visor, 1999, Loewe Foundation International Young Poetry Prize), That Salt on the Tongue to Say Mangrove (translated by Jasmine V. Bailey, Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2021), and the chapbook Excursion, which was selected by Mary Jo Bang as the winner of the Oversound Chapbook Prize. Her hybrid poetry book Poem That Never Ends (2021) was a winner of the Essay Press/University of Washington Bothell Contest. Her play Exactamente bajo el sol (staged at Teatro del Pueblo, 2008) was granted the Plays Third Prize by the Argentine Institute of Theatre. She co-translated Anne Carson’s Eros the Bittersweet and Home Movies, by Robert Hass, into Spanish. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU and is an editor at Ugly Duckling Presse.
http://www.silvinalopezmedin.com

Eliana Hernández-Pachón

Eliana Hernández was born in Bogotá in 1989 and lives in NYC. Her first book La mata was published in Colombia by Laguna Libros/Cardumen (2020), where it won the National Award of Poetry. Her poems have been published in several anthologies and magazines, including El Malpensante (Colombia), El periódico de poesía (Mexico), Berlin Quarterly (Germany), Firmament (USA) and in Como la flor: Antología de poesía colombiana cuir contemporánea (Planeta Libros, 2021). She has an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish from New York University and a PhD in Romance Studies from Cornell University.

Mariana Amato

Mariana Amato was born in Buenos Aires and resides in New York City, where she works as an educator. She holds a degree in Literature and Linguistics from Universidad de Buenos Aires, and a PhD in Latin American Literature from New York University. She has published academic essays on the literatures of Leopoldo Lugones, Horacio Quiroga, Clarice Lispector and Mario Bellatin, among others. Reviews, translations and essays by her have appeared in publications such as Las Ranas, Espacio Murena, Bazar Americano, and Página 12. She is the author of El desorden de la luz [The Disorder of Light], a collection of short stories published in 2021 by Paradiso. She is currently working on a book of poems.

Tomás Carbone

Tomás Enrique Carbone Vidal (36, Chile). Since 2013 he has participated in various creative writing workshops, including as a selected scholarship holder for Pablo Simonetti’s workshop at Universidad Finis Terra. Stories written by him have been published in Revista Paula (2019) and De Cabeza (2015). He is the author of «Fabulario», a book-object with illustrations by Paz Román, published in 2020. He is a lawyer from the University of Chile and has practiced for the defense of consumers in collective litigation. He is currently in his second year of the NYU MFA-CWS.

Diana Chery-Ramírez

Diana Chery-Ramírez: Colombian actor and playwright.  Received a Masters in Performing Arts from Academia Superior de Artes de Bogotá in 2000, and a MA in Theater from Hunter college CUNY in May 2012. Some of her plays include: Cuarto de Desahogo, Aviones de Papel (plays featured in Colección Teatro Colombiano No. XIII- Colombia; Antología de Dramaturgia Latina: Se Vende, Se alquila o Se regala, editorial Campana – Nueva York; Dramaturgia Colombiana Contemporánea Antología II. Min de Cultura de Colombia; Paso de Gato, México.) Partidas, (Series Textos Dramáticos, Cuadernillos de Arte ASAB) Ciudad Limpia (virtual LART); Gracia (revista Micra, No. 5). Puzzle (PolyText, 2010). Fragments de Luz ( Anthology: Sillas en la Frontera; Mujer, teatro y migraciones Edual, España) Diana has worked as an actor, director, teacher, and playwright with several theater companies from Colombia and the United States. She has resided in  New York since 2001.