Female writers - Ecuadorian Literature

Rosa Amelia Alvarado

Rosa Amelia Alvarado Roca (1944, Guayaquil) is an Ecuadorian writer and poet. In 1964 she founded the Guayaquil-based magazine Hogar, which became the biggest women’s magazine line in Ecuador. From 1967 to 1972, she worked in television as the director of programming at Channel 2 in Guayaquil, specializing in the creation of cultural programs. She is the president of the Guayas branch of the House of Ecuadorian Culture, and is a member of the Ecuadorian Academy of Language. Her most notable poems include: “Añoranza,” “Cosas Absurdas,” “De lo profano (II),” “El sermón de la montaña” and “La vida va y viene.”

Aminta Buenaño

Aminta del Rosario Buenaño Rugel (Santa Lucia, September 27, 1958) is an Ecuadorian writer, politician and diplomat. She has served as ambassador to Spain, Nicaragua, and Barbados, as well as vice president of the National Assembly of Ecuador. Her short stories have been published within and outside of Ecuador. Her 2011 novel “Si tú mueres primero” was a finalist of the XIII International Novel Competition of the City of Badajoz (Spain).

Dolores Veintimilla

Dolores Veintimilla de Galindo (Quito, 1829 – Cuenca, May 23, 1857) was an Ecuadorian poet. Veintemilla left few works, which were published posthumously in a collection entitled, “Producciones literarias,” by Celiano Monge in Quito. Her best known poem is “Quejas” (Laments). Her literary style is characterized by rhythmic and musical verse, and she hardly made use of metaphors or imagery in her poetry. She committed suicide on May 23, 1857 in Cuenca.

Carmen Váscones

Carmen Váscones is an Ecuadorian writer, poet, literary critic, columnist, essayist and a clinical psychologist. She was born in Samborondón in 1958. She earned a degree in Psychology in 1983 and in Clinical Psychologist in 1984. She won the Cesar Dávila Andrade Poetry Biennial Prize (Cuenca, 1993) for Memorial aun acantilado, top Mention at the Ismael Pérez Pazmiño Poetry Contest (El Universo, Guayaquil, 1996) for Aguaje. In 1998 she received an award from the Ministry of Education and Culture of Ecuador, in 2001 she received an award from the National Congress of Ecuador for “her practice of teaching and the cultivation of beautiful letters,” and in 2002 she received the Cultural Educational Merit (Ministry of Education and Culture of Ecuador). As a psychologist, Váscones works with abused children and their mothers. Her book ULTRAJE / OUTRAGE was translated into English by Alexis Levitin in 2018.

Edna Iturralde

Edna Iturralde De Howitt (Quito, May 10, 1948) is Ecuador’s most important and prolific authors of children and young adult’s literature. She has written 62 books. She has won various prizes and nominations within and outside her country. Among the most important of these are the Dario Guevara Mavorga National Prize for Children’s Literature in Ecuador in 2001, the Skipping Stones Award in the United States in 2002 and 2005, and the Mention of Honor of the Municipality of Quito in 2003 and 2004. She has been nominated twice, in 2012 and 2013, for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA). Her work was selected by the SEP within the competition of the Mexican Ministry of Education in 2003 and 2005. In 2005, two of her books were nominated for the Ecuadorian Honor List of IBBY (International Board of Books for the Young). She was a 2014 International Latino Book Awards Finalist. She is the president of the Ecuadorian Academy of Children and Juvenile Literature, which is associated with the Latin American Academy of Children and Juvenile Literature. Several of her books has been translated into English.

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)

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.

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.

Marcela Noriega

Marcela Noriega Rodríguez (Guayaquil, 1978) is an Ecuadorian writer, journalist and professor. She is the author of a novel, poetry books, and juvenile and children’s literature. At the age of 19, she won second place at the Biennial of Ecuadorian Poetry in Cuenca and in 2009 she won first place in the same contest with her book No hay que dar voces, published by the University of Cuenca, with support from the Ministry of Culture. She is the author of the novel Pedro Máximo y el círculo de tiza (2012).

Lupe Rumazo

Lupe Rumazo Cobo is an Ecuadorian novelist, short story writer, essayist and literary critic. She was born in Quito on October 14, 1933. Her father was the writer Alfonso Rumazo González. Her books have been prologued by authors such as Ernesto Sábato, Juana de Ibarbourou, and Benjamín Carrión. She is a member of the Ecuadorian Academy of Language, the House of Ecuadorian Culture, and the Circle of Venezuelan Writers. Since 1973 she has lived in Venezuela.

Sonia Manzano Vela

Sonia Manzano Vela is an Ecuadorian poet, novelist, short story writer and pianist. She was born in Guayaquil on February 27, 1947. Her poetry collection Carcoma con forma de paloma (1986) achieved commercial success. Her short story collection Flujo escarlata (1999) won the Joaquín Gallegos Lara National Fiction Prize. Her first novel, Y no abras la ventana todavía (1993) won the first prize in the “Biennial Ecuadorian Novel” contest. Her last novel, Solo de vino a piano lento (2013), was acclaimed by literary critic Antonio Sacoto as the best novel written by an Ecuadorian woman so far in the 21st century.

Rosa Borja de Ycaza

Rosa Borja Febres-Cordero, known as Rosa Borja de Ycaza, was an Ecuadorian poet, novelist, dramatist, essayist, feminist and activist. She was born in Guayaquil on July 30, 1889 and died in the same city on December 22, 1964. She was a member of the Ecuadorian Academy of Language. Notable among her writings are her plays Las de Judas (1933) and Nadie sabe lo que vendrá mañana (1962). She served as Minister of Guayas Province.

Sara Vanégas Coveña

Sara Vanégas Coveña (Cuenca, October 19, 1950) is an Ecuadorian poet, writer, and teacher. She received a scholarship to attend the Goethe Institute in Munich in 1971, where she earned a doctorate in Germanistics. She has taught at the University of Munich and Bielefeld University, and is currently a professor at the Universidad del Azuay in Cuenca. She has been recognized as a Universal Ambassador of Peace and as a corresponding member of the Asociación Prometeo de Poesía, an organization based in Madrid. Coveña is a two-time winner of the Jorge Carrera Andrade National Poetry Prize, receiving the award in both 2000 and 2004.

Magaly Vanégas Coveña

Magaly Vanégas Coveña (Cuenca, 1953) is an Ecuadorian poet, short story writer, journalist, philologist and teacher. Following her studies at the University of Cuenca, she received a scholarship to study at the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute in the former Soviet Union, as well as at the Faculty of History and Philology at Moscow University. She has taught Spanish at Moscow University and Russian at Cuenca’s Ecuadorian-Soviet Cultural Institute. She is currently a teacher at the Manuel J. Calle National School in Cuenca. She is a member of the Ibero-American Poetry Academy in Cuenca. Her poems are known for their short verses and themes of absence, loneliness, nostalgia, and simple things in nature, for example: “A bird / has hung its nest / in the shadow / of a balcony” (from Espejos de la imaginación, 2000).

María del Carmen Garcés

María del Carmen Garcés is a writer, translator, journalist and historian. She was born in Latacunga in 1958. She has lived in Bolivia, Argentina, United States, Cuba and Chile. One of her best known books is Conversaciones con Pombo: Combatiente de la guerrilla del Che en Bolivia (2011), about her conversations with Harry Villegas Tamayo, aka Pombo, a guerilla fighter who accompanied the revolutionary Che Guevara in Bolivia.