richard - Ecuadorian Literature

Javier Cevallos Perugachi

Javier Cevallos Perugachi (Quito, January 18, 1976) is a poet, playwright, actor, and stage director. He has worked on over 25 stage productions with national and international groups and actors. His literary works include the poetry collections, “La ciudad que se devoró a sí misma” (2001) and “C” (2005), as well as the plays “¡Repúbica! / Danzante” (2012) and “Ofelia City & Llaktayuk” (2014).

Kelver Ax

Kelver Ax, pseudonym of Kleber Ajila Vacacela (Loja, 1985 – January 18, 2016) was an Ecuadorian poet and plastic artist. His books include: “CU4D3RN0 D3 4R3N4” (2012), Pop-Up (2014), and posthumously “Egagrópilas” (2016), which won the first Alejandro Carrión National Poetry Contest. His work has appeared in national and international magazines as well as anthologies. In 2019, his collected works appeared in a book, “Su sombra como un mapa: obra reunida de Kelver Ax.” He was invited to several fairs and festivals such as FIL QUITO (Quito, 2012), Latino Poets (New York, 2015), and VI Poetry Festival (Lima, 2015). He was also an award-winning plastic artist whose work has been featured in galleries and cultural centers. He was and continues to be one of the most distinctive, powerful, and original artists of his country and of his time. He died in 1985 at the age of 30.

Carla Badillo Coronado

Carla Badillo Coronado (Quito, 1985) is an Ecuadorian poet, writer, journalist, translator, and travel writer based in Lisbon, Portugal. Her poetry books have won numerous prestigious awards. In 2010, she received the Moradalsur Award for her poetry collection “Belongings / Pertenencias”; in 2011, she won the César Dávila Andrade National Poetry Award for her book “Partituras Incompletas”; and in 2015, her poetry book “El color de la granada” won the Loewe Foundation International Poetry Prize for Young Creation. Her short novel “Abierta sigue la noche” received honorable mention at both the 2015 La Linares Prize and the 2017 Joaquín Gallegos Lara Prize.

Bernardita Maldonado

Bernardita Maldonado (Loja, 1969) is an Ecuadorian poet and writer. She has resided in Spain for over 25 years. She is the author of several poetry collections, including “Biografía de los pájaros” (2007) and “Con todos los soles lejanos” (2015). She has compiled the poetry of Héctor Manuel Carrión and written an introduction to it. Her native city of Loja honored her as “Woman of Letters 2015.” She is a member of the Ecuadorian House of Culture in Loja.

Vladimiro Rivas

Vladimiro Rivas Iturralde (Latacunga, June 5, 1944) is an Ecuadorian novelist, short story writer, biographer, opera critic, essayist, editor, translator, and award-winning university professor. He has been a resident of Mexico since 1973 and also holds Mexican citizenship. Since its establishment in 1974, he has been a professor at the Azcapotzalco Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City. He has produced eight collections of short stories, two novels, and five nonfiction books. Some of his work has been translated to English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Bulgarian. He has also been the editor of anthologies of Ecuadorian writers, such as the acclaimed “Cuento ecuatoriano contemporáneo,” which was released in Mexico in 2001 and promptly translated into English as “Contemporary Ecuadorian Short Stories” in 2002.

Margarita Borja

Margarita Borja (Quito, 1983) is an Ecuadorian writer, journalist, translator, and literary critic. She has lived in Leipzip, Germany since 2007, where her daughters were born and raised. Since 2012 she has written an international opinion column for the Ecuadorian newspaper El Universo. In 2015, she published a collection of 32 of her opinion columns as a book, “Una latina en Alemania: historias de dos mundos” [A Latina in Germany: Stories of Two Worlds]. Her articles have appeared in numerous publications.

Sabrina Duque

Sabrina Duque (Guayaquil, 1979) is an award-winning Ecuadorian journalist, writer, and translator. She was a finalist for the 2015 Gabriel García Márquez Journalism Prize in the Text category for her work “Vasco Pimentel, el oidor.” In 2017, she published “Lama,” a non-fiction account of the survivors of Bento Rodrigues and Paracatú de Baixo, communities in central Brazil devastated by a flood of toxic mud from a mining dam failure. She won the The Michael Jacobs Prize for Travel Writing in 2018 for her book “VolcáNica.” She has lived in Portugal, Costa Rica, Brazil, and Nicaragua, where she conducted research on active volcanoes, and she now resides in the United States. Some of her work has been translated into English, Italian and Portuguese.

Esteban Poblete Oña

Esteban Poblete Oña aka E. Plobete (Quito, 1979) is an Ecuadorian novelist, short story writer, and poet. In 2017 he published his debut novel “El ojo a través de la calavera.” In 2021 he published the novels “Tres cantos fúnebres para Ella” and “Tremolar” which are part of a tetralogy named “Tetralogía de Q.” Its next 2 books, “El celo de los malditos” and “El Dragón en la Flor,” are expected for release in 2022.

Efraín Villacís

Efraín Villacís (Quito, 1966) is an Ecuadorian novelist, short story writer, playwright, editor, and literary critic. His fiction stories and essays have been published in magazines within and outside of Ecuador. As a literary critic and essayist, he has authored prologues and essays about numerous authors, including Teresa de la Parra, Enrique Gil Gilbert, Erasmo de Roterdam, José Rafael Bustamante, José de la Cuadra, and Mary Shelley. His theater play, “Contrato,” premiered in 1999. He released his debut novel, “La sonrisa hueca del señor Horudi,” in 2018. His latest novel, “Ciudad Jenga,” was published in 2020.

Andrea Rojas Vasquez

Andrea Rojas Vasquez (Loja, November 26, 1993) is an Ecuadorian poet. Her first poetry collection, “Matar a un conejo” [To Kill a Rabbit], was published in 2020. Her second book, “Llévame a casa, por favor” [Take Me Home, Please], was published in 2021. Her poetry entry, “Llámame Ismael” [Call Me Ishmael], was awarded the 2021 best poetry prize at the Ileana Espinel Cedeño International Poetry Festival held in Guayaquil.

David Ledesma Vásquez

David Ledesma Vásquez (Guayaquil, December 17, 1934 – March 30, 1961) was an Ecuadorian poet, writer, journalist, stage actor, and radio drama and radio soap opera actor. Although his work went unnoticed for several years after his death, it eventually acquired a cult following. He belonged to Club 7, a group of poets from the port city of Guayaquil in the 1950s. He committed suicide by hanging at the age of 27 in 1961. He left behind several unpublished works, including one ominously titled “La risa del ahorcado” [The Hanged Man’s Laugh]. Ileana Espinel Cedeño, a fellow Club 7 member, oversaw the posthumous publication of his poetry collection “Cuaderno de Orfeo” [Orfeo’s Notebook] in 1962.

Club 7 (Group of poets from 1950s Guayaquil, Ecuador)

Club 7, or Club Siete, was a significant group of poets formed in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and active from 1951 to 1962. The origin of the group’s name, Club 7, can be traced back to its initial formation with seven members: David Ledesma Vázquez, Gastón Hidalgo Ortega, Carlos Benavides Vega, Ileana Espinel Cedeño, Sergio Román Armendáriz, Carlos Abadíe Silva, and Miguel Donoso Pareja. However, the group experienced a change in dynamics when it became known that Ledesma and Benavides were homosexual. As a result, Donoso and Abadíe decided to leave the group. Despite this loss, the remaining five members continued their collaboration and published an anthology titled “Club 7” in 1954. In 1960, three of the members, Ledesma, Román, and Espinel published another collection called “Triángulo,” showcasing their continued literary endeavors.

Gastón Hidalgo Ortega

Gastón Hidalgo Ortega (Guayaquil, March 19, 1929 – January 5, 1973) was an Ecuadorian poet and member of Club 7, a poets’ group in Guayaquil in the 1950s. His poems can be found within the books “Club 7” (1954) and “33 poemas universitarios” (1955), both of which were compilations of poetry by various authors. His poems were also published in various magazines such as Cuadernos del Guayas, Ateneo Ecuatoriano, Letras del Ecuador, as well as the newspaper La Nacion from La Paz. During his lifetime he did not publish a collection of his own. In 1990, the House of Ecuadorian Culture published a posthumous collection of his poems, “Colección de poesía ecuatoriana: La rosa de papel, 25,” compiled by fellow Club 7 member Ileana Espinel. He worked as an editorial proofreader at the House of Ecuadorian Culture in Guayaquil. He died at age 44.

Ileana Espinel Cedeño

Ileana Espinel Cedeño (Guayaquil, October 31, 1933 – February 21, 2001) was an Ecuadorian poet, journalist and writer. She was the only female member of the 1950’s Guayaquil poetry group Club 7. Espinel joined The House of Ecuadorian Culture at the age of 23, becoming the organization’s first female member. She served as editor of the Ecuadorian journals El Universo, El Telégrafo, and La Nación as well as the Mexican magazine Nivel and the Venezuelan magazine Poesía. In 1957, she published “Piezas Líricas” [Lyrical Pieces], which was her favorite collection of her own poetry. She served as the the principal Councillor of the Guayaquil canton (1967-1970). As an editor, she was instrumental in getting the works of various poets published by the House of Ecuadorian Culture. The Guayaquil International Poetry Festival Ileana Espinel Cedeño, named in her honor, has established itself as one of the most important Festivals in Latin America.

César M. Ayala Paredes

César M. Ayala Paredes aka César Ayala (1923) is an Ecuadorian poet and short story writer. He is known as The Soldier Poet because he served in Ecuador’s armed forces and in 1955 he published a book of poems titled “Los poemas del soldado” [The Soldier’s Poems]. In 2003, the House of Ecuadorian Culture published his short story collection, “Vernissage.” He has earned various awards for his works.