21st Century Writers - Ecuadorian Literature

Raúl Pérez Torres

Raúl Pérez Torres (Quito, May 11, 1941) is an Ecuadorian writer and cultural promoter. His short story collection En la noche y en la niebla won the Casa de las Américas Prize (Havana, Cuba) in 1980, one of Latin America’s oldest and most prestigious literary awards. In 1995 Pérez’ short story Sólo cenizas hallarás won the Juan Rulfo Prize (France) and the Julio Cortazar Prize. From 2000-2019, Pérez served as the president of the Ecuadorian House of Culture in Quito, and from 2017-2019 served as Ecuador’s Minister of Culture.

Hernán Rodríguez Castelo

Hernán Rodríguez Castelo (Quito, June 1, 1933 – February 20, 2017) was a writer, historian of literature, art critic, essayist, and linguist. He wrote more than 120 books, and also wrote the foreword of books by other authors. He was a member of the Royal Spanish Academies of History and Language, and of the Ecuadorian Academies of History and Language.

Kristel Ralston

Kristel Ralston (Guayaquil, 1984) is a bestselling writer of more than 25 contemporary romance books. Her novel “Lazos de cristal” was one of the five manuscripts on the shortlist for the Second Literary Contest of Indie Authors (2015), sponsored by Amazon, Diario El Mundo, Audible and Esfera de Libros. This contest received more than 1200 manuscripts from different literary genres of Spanish speakers from 37 countries. Kristel was the only Latin-American among the five finalists of the contest. Ralston was also on the shortlist for the romantic novel contest Leer y Leer 2013, organized by Vestales publishing house from Argentina, and she is co-administrator of the literary blog Escribe Romántica. Ralston has published several novels. A prestigious Ecuadorian magazine nominated her as one of the Women of the Year 2015 in the Art category for her literary work.

Susana Freire García

Susana Freire García is a writer, historian and cultural promoter. She was born in 1977. She has a doctorate in Jurisprudence from the Central University of Ecuador but does not practice law. She is a researcher and historian of various aspects of the city of Quito, and is part of the Proyecto Quitología (English: Quitology Project), founded by Ulises Estrella. She has published 9 books with themes related to the city. Her books include Tzantzismo: tierno e insolente (2008), Un maestro en tiempos difíciles (2013), and Caperuso y el violinista (2010), which won the Alicia Yánez Cossío Children’s Literature Contest. She is also the co-author of Cae el telón (2012). Freire’s father is the writer and historian Edgar Freire Rubio (Ecuador, 1947).

Antonio Preciado

Antonio Preciado Bedoya is an Afro-Ecuadorian poet, university professor and diplomat. He was born in Esmeraldas on May 21, 1941. He was director of the Municipal Center of Culture of the city of Esmeraldas and President of the Esmeraldas chapter of the House of Ecuadorian Culture. For 23 years he was director of the Department of Culture of the Central Bank of Ecuador and rector of the University of Esmeraldas. He has been dubbed the “Poet of the Diaspora.” Together with Nelson Estupiñán Bass, Preciado is considered one of the greatest exponents of Esmeralda poetry. Siete veces la vida (1967) is widely regarded as his most famous collection of poems. Some of his work has been translated into English, French and Romanian.

Édison Gabriel Paucar

Edison Gabriel Paucar Tufiño (Quito, July 29, 1988) is an Ecuadorian novelist, short story writer and journalist. In 2012, his book of short stories Malas compañías y otros caballos de Troya won the Joaquín Gallegos Lara Prize. Paucar’s first novel Mientras llega la lluvia (2017) was a finalist of the North Texas Book Festival Award and received honorable mention at the Darío Guevara Mayorga Prize. Since 2019 he has worked as a journalist at La Hora newspaper.

Leira Aráujo Nieto

Leira Aráujo Nieto (Guayaquil, 1990) is an Ecuadorian poet, writer, screen writer, actress, literature professor, and researcher. In 2015 she published her first poetry book, “Caníbales.” That same year her poetry collection, “Última noche en el país de los hoteles,” won the Ileana Espinel Poetry Prize. Her poems have been published in various national and international anthologies. She earned a PhD in Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Granada (Spain). She currently lives in Granada, Andalusia, Spain.

Josué Negrete

Josué Negrete is a poet from Quito, Ecuador. In 2020 he won the Ileana Espinel Poetry Prize for his book Bajo las ramas que caen, caen, caen.

Edwin Augusto Paredes

Edwin Augusto Paredes Paredes is an Ecuadorian poet. He was born in Loja 1988. His poetry has appeared on blogs, online magazines and national and international anthologies. In 2019 the House of Ecuadorian Culture, Loja chapter, published his book Vacuidad. In 2018 his poetry book Génesis del polvo won the Ileana Espinel Cedeño National Poetry Prize.

Cristóbal Zapata

Cristóbal Zapata is an Ecuadorian poet, editor, literary critic, and art curator. He was born in Cuenca in 1968. He is currently the executive director of the Municipal Biennial Foundation of Cuenca. He has published the poetry books Corona de cuerpos (1992), Te perderá la carne (1999), Baja noche (2000), No hay naves para Lesbos (2004), Jardín de arena (2009), La miel de la higuera (2012) and El habla del cuerpo (2015); and the book of short stories El pan y la carne (2007), which won the prestigious Joaquín Gallegos Lara National Literature Prize.

Catalina Sojos

Catalina Sojos Mata (Cuenca, 1951) is a poet, writer, columnist, author of children’s literature, and a translator. In 1989, at the age of 37, she published her first poetry book: Hojas de poesía. She has been awarded the Gabriela Mistral National Poetry Prize, 1989, and the Jorge Carrera Andrade Prize, 1992. She is currently the director of the Manuel A. Landívar Museum in Cuenca, Ecuador.

Solange Rodríguez

Solange Rodríguez Pappe (Guayaquil, Ecuador, 1976) is an Ecuadorian writer and professor known for her short fiction in the genres of fantasy, horror, and the strange. She has published several acclaimed collections, including Balas perdidas (2010), which won the Joaquín Gallegos Lara Award for Best Storybook of the Year. A longtime educator, Rodríguez has also been honored with the Matilde Hidalgo Prize for her academic career. Her works often explore themes of the fantastic and macabre, and have been translated into multiple languages, gaining international recognition.

Luís Carlos Mussó

Luís Carlos Mussó (Guayaquil, March 17, 1970) is an Ecuadorian poet and novelist. His first novel Oscurana (2012) won the Felicísimo Rojas Literary Prize and the Joaquín Gallegos Lara Prize. His latest novel Teoría del manglar (2018) is a work that follows the structure of the periodic table of elements and deals with the death of his father. Among his 8 poetry books, Tiniebla de esplendor (2006) and Mea Vulgatea (2014) have won the prestigious Jorge Carrera Andrade Award.

Miguel Antonio Chávez

Miguel Antonio Chávez Balladares (Guayaquil, June 7, 1979) is an Ecuadorian novelist and short story writer. His first short story book was Círculo vicioso para principiantes (2005). It was followed by the novel La maniobra de Heimlich (2010), the theater piece La kriptonita del Sinaí y otras piezas breves (2013), and the novel Conejo ciego en Surinam (2013). In 2007 he was a finalist for Radio France Internationale’s Juan Rulfo Prize with the story La puta madre patria. In 2011 he was named “one of the 25 best kept secrets in Latin American literature” by the Guadalajara International Book Fair.

Francisco Granizo Ribadeneira

Francisco Granizo Ribadeneira (Quito, November 8, 1925 – January 21, 2009) was an Ecuadorian poet, professor and diplomat. He was a professor at Ecuador’s Central University and the director of the House of Ecuadorian Culture’s radio station. He published several poetry books, including “Por el breve polvo” (1948), “La piedra” (1958), “Nada más el verbo” (1969), “Muerte y caza de la madre” (1978), “Sonetos del amor total” (1990) and “El sonido de tus pasos” (2005). He also wrote a verse drama, “Fedro” (2005). In 2001, he published his only novel, “La piscina,” for which he received the Joaquín Gallegos Lara Prize for best novel of the year. Through the protagonists Fernando and Lilí, the book examines loneliness and the impossibility of finding love, two frequent themes in Granizo’s works.