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Authors
Roger Bartra
A Mexican sociologist and anthropologist, recognised as one of most important contemporary social
scientists of his country, Roger Bartra is well known
for his work on Mexican identity in The Cage of
Melancholy. Identity and Metamorphosis in the Mexican Character, his social theory in The Imaginary
Networks of Political Power and, more recently, his
anthropo-clinical theory of the exocerebrum, that
argues that the brain is partly constructed by its
“cultural prostheses”, the external socio-cultural
elements that complete it. Trained as an anthropologist in Mexico, Bartra earned his doctorate in
sociology at La Sorbonne and is Emeritus Research
Fellow at the National Autonomous University of
Mexico, where he has worked since 1971. In 1985
he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is
also Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck College,
University of London.
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Carmen Boullosa
She is the author of several books of poetry (the most
recent being La patria insomne and Corro a mirarme
en ti) and eighteen novels, as well as a number of
essay collections and plays (seven of them have been
staged). She has read at book fairs and festivals in
dozens of countries and has lectured at Oxford, Cambridge, Heidelberg, Freie Universität Berlin, Irvine,
Brown, UCLA, Yale, the Library of Congress and
UNAM, among other institutions. There are scores of
books and over seventy doctoral thesis that deal with
her work and her novella La otra mano de Lepanto was
considered in an international survey of authorities
as one of the best works of literature written in Spanish in the past 25 years. She was Visiting Professor
at NYU, Columbia University, Georgetown, Blaise
Pascal and SDSU; Distinguished Lecturer at City
College, CUNY (2004-2010); and Alfonso Reyes
Chair at La Sorbonne. She served as Chief Advisor
for a major museum exhibition (Nueva York 16131945), and engaged in the writing and production a
feature film based on her novel, Las paredes hablan.
An exhibit of her artwork was held at Museo Carillo
Gil (Despechadas, me dejaste con hormigas en el alma)
She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and the
Xavier Villaurrutia Literature Award.
Lydia Cacho
Mexican journalist, writer and Human Rights defender. Her world reputation as an expert on freedom of expression, peace education, gender and
social violence, as well as her award-winning books
on organised crime, child pornography and human
trafficking, have brought her to Europe, Asia, Latin
America, Australia, Canada and the United States as
a professional speaker. She has been a guest lecturer
at Columbia University, NYU, Syracuse University,
University of Michigan, Stanford University, and
UCLA among others. She is a Board Member of
Article 19, the UK-based Freedom of Expression
NGO. Her books have been translated into 18 languages. She lives under constant death threats from
the crime lords she has exposed.
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Francisco Hinojosa
He studied Spanish Language and Literature at
the National Autonomous University of Mexico
(UNAM). Before dedicating himself to writing
on a full-time basis, he edited various periodical
publications such as La Gaceta (Fondo de Cultura
Económica). He has published more than 50 books
of poetry, short stories, travel chronicles, journalism,
essays, children’s books, textbooks, and anthologies.
Some of his titles include: Robinson perseguido, La
peor señora del mundo, La Fórmula del Dr. Funes,
Una semana en Lugano, Ana, ¿verdad?, Informe negro, Un tipo de cuidado, Migraña en racimos, Mexican Chicago, La nota negra, Cuéntame, Poesía eras
tú, El tiempo apremia and Emma. His works have
been translated into English, Korean, Portuguese,
Italian, Polish, Lithuanian and Slovenian. He has
also authored and edited textbooks for elementary
and secondary education. He has obtained various
awards and recognitions, such as the San Luis Potosí National Short Story Award, as well as multiple
grants from Mexico’s National System of Creative
Artists (SNCA).
Enrique Krauze
A historian, essayist, and editor, he earned a degree in
industrial engineering at the National Autonomous
University of Mexico and a doctorate in history at
Colegio de Mexico. He worked for over two decades
with Octavio Paz at Vuelta magazine, where he was
editor-in-chief and subdirector. In 1992 he founded
the publishing house Clío, which he is director of, and
he is also director of prominent cultural magazine
Letras Libres, which he founded in 1999, distributed
in several Spanish-speaking countries. His many
awards include the Magda Donato Award for his
book Caudillos culturales de la Revolución mexicana,
the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Comillas Biography Award given by Tusquets Editores, the Capitán
Alonso de León Medal for Historical Merit, and
the Alfonso X the Wise Grand Cross of Civil Order
(awarded by the Spanish government). He is the
author of landmark books in national historiography
such as Biography of Power, Daniel Cosío Villegas:
Una biografía intelectual, La presidencia imperial and
La presencia del pasado, among many others, and is
author of various TV series on historical subjects.
He is member of the Mexican Academy of History
and, since 2005, member of El Colegio Nacional.
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Tedi López Mills
She studied philosophy at the Mexican National
University and literature at La Sorbonne. She has
published eleven poetry books: Cinco estaciones, Un
lugar ajeno, Segunda persona (Efraín Huerta National
Poetry Award), Glosas, Horas, Luz por aire y agua, Un
jardín, cinco noches (y otros poemas), Contracorriente
(José Fuentes Mares Literature Award), Parafrasear,
Death on Rua Augusta (Xavier Villaurrutia Award),
and most recently, Amigo del perro cojo. She has also
published two non-fiction books, one on Stéphane
Mallarmé, La noche en blanco de Mallarmé, and a
collection of personal-narrative essays, Libro de las
explicaciones. She has translated the work of many
American, Canadian, English and French poets into
Spanish. She lives in Mexico City.
Valeria Luiselli
Author of the internationally acclaimed novel Faces
in the Crowd and the book of essays Sidewalks, both
translated to multiple languages and published in the
UK by Granta. Her most recent novel is The Story of
My Teeth (Granta 2015). Her work has appeared in
the New Yorker, The New York Times and McSweeney’s, among others. She has written a ballet libretto
for the New York City Ballet in Lincoln Center and
in 2014 she was the recipient of the National Book
Foundation’s “5 under 35” award for her book Faces
in the Crowd. She has lived in Costa Rica, Korea,
South Africa, India, Spain and the United States.
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Elena Poniatowska
She began her career in journalism in 1954 in the
newspaper Excélsior, and soon after in Novedades.
Early on she began to publish interviews with personalities in the Mexican and international cultural scene
such as Alfonso Reyes, Luis Buñuel, Diego Rivera,
Juan Rulfo, André Malraux and Rosario Castellanos, among others. She is author of over forty books
covering almost all genres: interviews, short stories,
theatre plays, narrative journalism, novels, essays and
biographies. Her book La noche de Tlatelolco, a polyphonic testimony of one of the most tragic episodes
in Mexico’s contemporary history, was acclaimed by
readers and critics alike. Her many awards include
the Mazatlán Literature Award, the Alfaguara Novel
Award, the National Arts and Sciences Award, the
Rómulo Gallegos Award, and the Cervantes Award.
Her extensive list of publications include Hasta no
verte, Jesús mío, Fuerte es el silencio, Tinísima, La
piel del cielo, El tren pasa primero, Octavio Paz: Las
palabras del árbol and Leonora. Her political commitment and active participation in the public life of
Mexico have been constant throughout her career.
Pedro Serrano
Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Poetry and
Poetry and Translation at UNAM, he has also taught
at the Universidad de Barcelona and Georgetown
University. He has published several books of poems. Along with Carlos López Beltrán he edited
and translated La generación del cordero (The Lamb
Generation) a bilingual anthology of Contemporary
British Poetry, and an anthology of the Irish poet
Matthew Sweeney. He translated Shakespeare’s King
John and Edward Hirsch’s Lay Back the Darkness into
Spanish, and his poems have appeared in Modern
Poetry in Translation, Nimrod International Journal
and Bomb, among others. He has been also included
in the anthologies Reversible Monuments, Connecting
Lines, Mexican Poetry Today 20/20 Voices, Being
Human. More Real Poems for Unreal Times, and
Literature. An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama
and Writing, edited by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia.
He is editor of Periódico de Poesía, an online poetry
journal (www.periodicodepoesia.unam.mx).
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Juan Villoro
He has been Professor at the UNAM, and Visiting
Professor at Yale, Princeton and Pomeu Fabra University. He has translated works by Truman Capote,
Graham Green, Goethe, Lichtenberg, and Rezzori.
He received the José Donoso Ibero-American Award
given in Chile, for life achievement; the Premio
ACE in Argentina, for best theatre play of the year;
Antonin Artaud Award for the best Mexican book of
the year; the José María Arguedas Award in Cuba for
best Latin American novel of the last two years; the
Herralde Award for best book of the year, and the
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán International Award,
among others. He has authored novels, short story
collections, children’s books, theatre plays, books of
essays and narrative journalism. His works include
the novel Los culpables, the book of literary essays De
eso se trata and his theatre monologue Conferencia
sobre la lluvia, among others.
Jorge Volpi
Author of the novels La paz de los sepulcros, El temperamento melancólico and his Trilogy of the Twentieth Century: En busca de Klingsor, El fin de la locura
and No será la tierra. He has also written the novellas
collected in Días de ira, Sanar tu piel amarga, El jardín
devastado and Oscuro bosque oscuro. His books of
essays include La imaginación y el poder, La Guerra
y las palabras, Mentiras contagiosas, El insomnio de
Bolívar and Leer la mente. He has taught at universities in Mexico, Chile, Spain, USA and France, and
has been a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation and
the National System of Creators of Mexico. He was
director of TV Channel 22 and is a regular contributor to Reforma and El País newspapers. His books
have been translated into 25 languages. In 2012 he
received the Planeta-Casa de América Award for
his novel Tejedora de sombras. His novel Memorial
del Engaño was published in 2014 in Latin America
and Spain, and is forthcoming in Brazil, Portugal,
Italy and France. He is currently General Director
of Festival Internacional Cervantino.
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