Short story writers - Ecuadorian Literature

Francisco Tobar García

Francisco Tobar Garcia (Quito, November 3, 1928 – Quito, February 1, 1997) was an Ecuadorian poet, playwright, short story writer, essayist, journalist, literary critic, diplomat and university professor.

Ángel Felicísimo Rojas

Ángel Felicísimo Rojas (Loja, December 20, 1909 – Guayaquil, July 20, 2003) was an Ecuadorian novelist and short story writer. His best known novel is El éxodo de Yangana (1949), which is one of Ecuador’s most important books. In 1948 Rojas published an influential book entitled The Ecuadorian Novel, which set the tone for literary criticism in the country for future decades. Rojas founded the Socialist Party of Loja in 1927. He was a passionate supporter of socialism, which led to his arrest and imprisonment by the Ecuadorian government in 1941. In 1997 Rojas was awarded the Eugenio Espejo Award in Literature.

Adalberto Ortiz

Adalberto Ortiz Quiñones (Esmeraldas, February 9, 1914 – Guayaquil, February 1, 2003) was an Afro-Ecuadorian novelist, short story writer, poet, professor and diplomat. Among his most important books are: Juyungo (1942, novel; English translation by Susan Hill and Jonathan Tittler, 1983); Earth, Sound and Drum (1953, poetry); Entundada (1971, short story). His most defining feature as a writer was the incorporation of the elements of afro-Ecuadorian culture, enriching his literary vocabulary with its jargon, its elasticity and its rhythm. In 1995 Ortiz was awarded the Eugenio Espejo Prize, Ecuador’s most important literary award.

Luis Félix López

Luis Ramón Félix López (Calceta, August 25, 1932 – Guayaquil, December 17, 2008) was an Ecuadorian doctor and politician, as well as an award-winning novelist, short story writer and poet. He held many senior government posts during his lifetime and served two terms as president of the Guayas branch of the House of Ecuadorian Culture. His 1973 novel “Los designios,” was finalist for that year’s International Novel Award (Mexico), and his 1996 novel “La noche de rebaño,” won the Joaquín Gallegos Lara Prize. He also published several short story books and a collection of poetry.

Fernando Chaves

Fernando Chaves Reyes (Otavalo, February 13, 1902 – Quito, 1999) was an Ecuadorian novelist, essayist, journalist, diplomat and politician. He wrote the short novel, “La Embrujada” (1923) and the novel “Plata y bronze” (1927), which laid the groundwork for the Ecuadorian Indigenist novel. Chaves’ novel influenced other future Ecuadorian indigenista novelists, including Jorge Icaza, whose novel “Huasipungo” (1934) is considered Ecuador’s most important indigenista novel. He served as Ecuador’s ambassador to El Salvador, Mexico and Nicaragua.

Vicente Cabrera Funes

Vicente Cabrera Funes (March 28, 1944 – July 6, 2014) was an Ecuadorian novelist, essayist and Spanish professor at at the University of Minnesota Morris. He received his B.A. from the Pontifical Catholic University (Quito, Ecuador), and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts. He wrote several novels and short story collections, all of which were set principally in Ecuador. Critiquing Cabrera’s novel “Los malditos amantes de Carolina” (2005), George R. McMurray, Professor Emeritus Colorado State University, wrote that it “represents an ingenious example of metafiction, that is, a novel that dramatizes its own creative process.” Funes also wrote several notable essays, including “La nueva ficción hispanoamericana: a través de M.A. Asturias y G. García Márquez” (1972) and “Tres poetas a la luz de la metáfora: Salinas, Aleixandre y Guillén” (1975).

Ney Yépez Cortés

Ney Yépez Cortés (Quito, 1968) is an Ecuadorian novelist, poet, journalist, songwriter, screenwriter, lecturer, and teacher of Tai Chi, Reiki and Qi Gong. He is best known as a science fiction, adventure and mystery writer. He published his first poems in 1990 in Ixo Facto, a surrealist literary magazine. He has since written 5 novels and 3 books of short stories. In 2001 he published his first book of short stories entitled “Mundos abiertos,” which was critically acclaimed. In 2006 he published his first novel “Las sombras de la Casa Mitre,” and 2009 he published its sequel “El árbol de las brujas.” His latest novel “El secreto de la reliquia sagrada,” a work of adventure and mystery, was published in 2019.

Eugenia Viteri

Blanca Eugenia Viteri Segura (Guayaquil, July 4, 1928 – Quito, September 21, 2023) is an Ecuadorian novelist, short story writer, anthologist, women’s rights activist, and teacher. Viteri has published over a dozen books including novels, short story collections, and anthologies. Her work has been translated into English, Russian, and Bulgarian. She has been a member of the House of Ecuadorian Culture since 1962. She founded the Manuela Sáenz Cultural Foundation in 1983. Through her work with the foundation, Viteri became one of the most important defenders of women’s rights in Ecuador. In 2008, President Rafael Correa honored her with the Rosa Campuzano National Prize. She was among the first to receive the newly created award, which recognizes the work of noteworthy Ecuadorian women.

Pedro Jorge Vera

Pedro Jorge Vera (Guayaquil, June 16, 1914 – Guayaquil, March 5, 1999) was an Ecuadorian journalist, novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet, university professor, and a politician from the Communist Party of Ecuador. He published and contributed to several controversial newspapers and magazines, such as “La Calle”, with the writer Alejandro Carrión, and “La Mañana”. He remained throughout his life a close friend of Cuban president Fidel Castro. Vera was the paternal uncle of Prima Ballerina Noralma Vera Arrata.

Javier Vásconez

Javier Vásconez (Quito, 1966) is an Ecuadorian novelist, short story writer, and editor. In 1989, his collection of short tales “El hombre de la mirada oblicua” [The Man with the Sideways Glance] won the Joaquín Gallegos Lara Prize, and in 1982 his book of short stories “Ciudad lejana” [A Distant City] was a finalist for the Casa de las Américas Prize (Cuba). His stories have been translated into other languages, including English, French, German, Swiss, Hebrew, Bulgarian, and Greek. In 2022, he was awarded the Eugenio Espejo Prize, which is Ecuador’s highest national literary award.

Yanna Hadatty

Yanna Hadatty Mora (Guayaquil, 1969) is an Ecuadorian essayist and short story writer. Haddatty has lived in Mexico since 1992, where she finished her higher education and worked as a professor. She received her doctorate in Ibero-American Literature from the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where she later worked as a professor and contemporary literature researcher. She also taught at the University of Sor Juana Cloister and the UAM Xochimilco. She is a full member of Ecuador’s House of Culture and the Executive Secretary of the Association of Ecuadorians in Mexico. She has been a member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers since 2005.

Juan Andrade Heymann

Juan Andrade Heymann (Quito, December 18, 1945) is an Ecuadorian writer, novelist, short story writer, poet, and playwright. His short story El lagarto en la mano (1965) and his novel Las tertulias de San Li Tun (1993) expressed social change.

María Clara Sharupi Jua

María Clara Sharupi Jua (Morona Santiago, 1964) is an Ecuadorian writer, poet, and translator, who writes in Spanish and Shuar, an indigenous language of Ecuador’s Amazon basin. She writes poetry in Shuar, while translating it into Spanish in order to reach a wider audience. She co-wrote the book “Amanece en nuestras vidas” (2011), the first anthology of poetry from Ecuadorian indigeneous women writers, and wrote the short story collection “Tarimiat” (2019), which was written in Shuar, Spanish, and English. Sharupi Jua also works as a translator and radio and television presenter in Shuar and Spanish. She was a member of the translation team that worked on the official Shuar translation of Ecuador’s Constitution. She lives in Quito, where she has also worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Migration on indigenous issues.

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).

César Dávila Andrade

César Dávila Andrade (Cuenca, Ecuador, October 5, 1918 – Caracas, Venezuela, May 2, 1967) was an Ecuadorian poet, writer and essayist, usually acclaimed as an outstanding member of the 1940 Madrugada Group. His interest in the strange and marvelous earned him the sobriquet,“el Fakir.” He is best known for his poetry, although he also wrote short novels, stories, essays and numerous newspaper articles. His works displayed elements of Neo-romanticism and surrealism. His best known poem, “Boletín y elegía de las mitas,” originally published in 1959, marked a milestone in Ecuadorian and Latin American literature. He spent much of his life in Caracas, Venezuela where he worked in the editorial staff of Zona Franca. For several years he served as cultural attaché at the Ecuadorian embassy. Death and transfiguration was a theme in his poems. In 1967, he committed suicide at the age of 48.