Ruth Patricia Rodríguez

Ruth Patricia Rodríguez Serrano (Loja, 1966) is a poet, fiction writer, and professor at the University of San Francisco of Quito. In 2005, she received the Pablo Palacio literary merit award from the Provincial Council of Loja. Rodríguez has achieved recognition for her literary works, particularly in the genres of children’s stories, youth stories, novels, and poetry. She has won two national contests for children’s and youth stories, organized by Círculo de Lectores and Pablo Palacio, respectively. Her writing has been featured in various national and international magazines and anthologies. Her novels include Putas de Cristal (2010) and Clepsidra (2020)

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Tamara Cadena (pen name Judesty)

Tamara Cadena, pen name Judesty (Quito, 1967) is an Ecuadorian writer. She has received several national and international awards and recognitions. In 2009, Cadena’s first novel El acuerdo (2008) won first prize in the online literary contest of El Corte Inglés and BookAndYou.com. Cadena’s third and latest novel El tiempo roto (2017) was well-received by critics. She has lived in Spain since she was thirteen. Cadena publishes her books under the pseudonym Judesty.

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Edwin Alcarás

Edwin Marcelo Alcarás Panchi (Quito, 1981) is an Ecuadorian professor, cultural journalist and fiction writer. He is the author of the book of short stories La tierra prometida (2012), which in 2010 won third place in the First Literary Prize of the Provincial Council of Pichincha. In 2011, he decided to quit writing for newspapers, and started an academic career. He has completed three Master’s Degree programs. 1. Hispanic Philology (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, UNED, Madrid, 2013); 2. Latin American Literature (PUCE, 2016), and Philosophy and Social Thought (FLACSO, 2019). He is currently a professor of Spanish as a foreign language at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE), and as a visiting assistant professor he has taught Spanish as a Second Language, Latin American Literature, and Creative Writing at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.

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Pablo Gómez Morán

Pablo Alberto Gómez Morán (Vinces, 1963) is an Ecuadorian writer known for his debut and only published book, “Las guerras de los hijos del sol: Leyendas de los antiguos pueblos andinos y australes” (2018). The book is a captivating retelling of Andean myths, reflecting Gómez Morán’s passion for the ancient cultures of the region. With his imaginative storytelling, he aims to elevate South American mythologies alongside universal mythologies and epic fantasy literature, offering readers a glimpse into the fascinating world of ancient Andean civilizations.

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Rafael Pino Roca

Rafael Pino Roca (Guayaquil, October 24, 1878 – 1963) was an Ecuadorian poet and playwright. From 1908-1911 he was appointed Captain of the Port of Guayaquil by General Eloy Alfaro. In 1915 his play La Pólvora, which was co-written with his friend César Borja Lavayen, was brought to the stage in the Olmedo Theater of Guayaquil. In 1916 he was named Minister of War, Navy and Aviation in the government of President Alfredo Baquerizo Moreno. In 1931 he was named Ecuador’s Consul General in Bremen and Prague, and in 1935 he was put in charge of trade with Berlin. Pino’s most praised work is Canto a la Raza (1934), about the discovery and conquest of the Americas.

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Juan Benigno Vela

Juan Benigno Vela Hervas (Ambato, July 9, 1843 – Ambato, February 24, 1920) was an Ecuadorian politician, lawyer, journalist, educator, writer and poet. He earned his law degree from the Central University of Ecuador. Since the age of 33 he was completely blind. He founded the newspapers El Combate, La Idea, La Candela, El Argos and El Pelayo. He was an opponent of the conservative governments of Presidents Gabriel García Moreno and General Ignacio de Veintemilla. For his beliefs he was several times persecuted, imprisoned or exiled. From 1912-1919 he was a senator during the governments of Presidents Leónidas Plaza (1901-1905, 1912-1916) and Alfredo Baquerizo Moreno (1916-1920). He is remembered as a consistent advocate for human rights and freedom in Ecuador.

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Alejandro Moreano

Alejandro Moreano (Quito, 1945) is an Ecuadorian writer, essayist, university professor, novelist, literary critic, and political scientist. On four occasions he was the director of the school of sociology at the Central University of Ecuador, and has been a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, and is currently a visiting professor at the Simon Bolivar Andean University (Ecuador). His latest novel El crímen del tarot (2020), which Moreano has described as “a novel within a novel,” has to do with politics, theater, love and eroticism.

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Nelson Estupiñán Bass

Nelson Estupiñán Bass (Sua, Esmeraldas, September 19, 1912 — Pennsylvania, United States, March 3, 2002) was an Afro-Ecuadorian novelist, short story writer, poet, essayist, journalist and diplomat. He served as the president of the Esmeraldas chapter of the House of Ecuadorian Culture. His first novel Cuando los guayacanes florecían (1954; translated into English as When the Guayacans Were in Bloom, 1987) is widely read in Ecuador and Latin America, and has been translated into English, German, French and Russian. In 1993 Bass received Ecuador’s highest literary honor, the Eugenio Espejo Award. In 1998, Estupiñán Bass was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. While giving a series of lectures in 2002 at Penn State University Bass became ill with pneumonia and succumbed to the deadly illness at the Hershey Medical Center on March 3, 2002

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Luis A. Martinez

Luis A. Martinez (Ambato, June 23, 1869 – November 26, 1909) was an Ecuadorian writer, painter, politician, and agriculturist. His novel A la costa (1904) is a masterpiece of Ecuadorian literature, and is one of the earliest works of realism in Ecuador. He was also a painter; some of his best paintings are housed outside of Ecuador: Two are in the United States Library of Congress, two in the Modern Art section of the Vatican Museum, and one is in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was an opponent of the government of Eloy Alfaro (President of Ecuador in 1895-1901, 1906-1911) and fought against the liberal guerillas of the 1890s.

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Jaime Marchán

Jaime Marchán Romero (Quito, March 15, 1947) is an Ecuadorian writer and politician. In 2013 his novel “Volcán de Niebla” won the Joaquín Gallegos Lara Prize. He studied Political Science at the Pontifical Catholic University (Quito), and earned a PhD at George Washington University (Washington, D.C.). He has served as Ecuador’s ambassador to Yugoslavia (1989-1990), Italy (1990-1992), Austria (1994-1997), Chile (1997-2000), Switzerland (2003-2008), and the United Kingdom (2019-). He has also held various posts in Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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Patricio Vallejo Aristizábal

Patricio Vallejo Aristizábal (Quito, 1964) is an Ecuadorian actor, director, dramaturg, playwright, and professor. In 2013, his play Caminando sobre arenas movedizas (2012) won the Joaquín Gallegos Lara Prize. He has written books on theater, such as Teatro y vida cotidiana (2003), El teatro político y la figura del Inca (2003), and La Niebla Y La Montaña: Tratado Sobre El Teatro Ecuatoriano Desde Sus Orígenes (2011). In 2001, the House of Ecuadorian Culture bestowed on Vallejo the “National Theatrical Merit Award.”

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Esteban Mayorga

Esteban Mayorga (Quito, 1977) is an Ecuadorian writer. He received his PhD in Hispanic Studies from Boston College. He is on the faculty of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Niagara University, New York, and Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador. His areas of research include the Latin American novel, travel writing, contemporary transatlantic fiction, and comparative literature. Mayorga has written a variety of fiction works, including the novella Vita Frunis (2010, winner of the Pablo Palacio Prize), and the novels Moscow, Idaho (2015), Cuarenta (2018), and Faribole (2018). He also wrote the short story books Un cuento violento (2007, winner of the Joaquín Gallegos Lara Prize) and Musculosamente (2012). Every other year he teaches a course on Latin American travel literature and takes students to the Galápagos Islands and the jungle of Ecuador.

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Natalia García Freire

Natalia García Freire (Cuenca, 1991) is an Ecuadorian journalist and writer. As a freelance writer her articles have been published in Univisión, El Hoy, Plan V Magazine, El Mercurio, CityLab Latino and BG Magazine. In 2019, Jorge Carrion of the New York Times included García’s debut novel “Nuestra piel muerta” in his article of the best Spanish-language books of the year. García currently lives in Madrid, Spain.

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Jaime Galarza Zavala

Jaime Alejandro Galarza Zavala (Cuenca, July 28, 1930 – Quito, July 20, 2023) was an Ecuadorian writer, poet, journalist and polítician. He published over 20 books, including books of poetry and non-fiction books, among which are: El yugo feudal (1962), Piratas del golfo (1973), Los Campesinos de Loja y Zamora (1973), El festín del petróleo (1974), Quienes mataron a Roldós (1982), Petróleo de nuestra muerte (1983). He served as the national vice president of the House of Ecuadorian Culture from 2008-2012. In 2007 President Rafael Correa awarded Galarza the Eugenio Espejo National Culture Prize. Among his friends were Julio Cortazar and Ernesto Che Guevara.

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Alfonso Rumazo González

Alfonso Rumazo González (Latacunga, Ecuador, 1903 — Caracas, Venezuela, 2002) was an Ecuadorian writer, historian, essayist and literary critic. He authored over 30 books in various fields (poetry, fiction, biography, literary criticism). Among his notable works is the biography Manuela saenz, la libertadora del libertador (Quito, 1984), about Doña Manuela Sáenz de Vergara y Aizpuru (1797-1856) who was an Ecuadorian revolutionary heroine of South America who had an intimate relationship with Simon Bolivar around 1822–1830. Rumazo González was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1999.

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