Female writers - Ecuadorian Literature

Gabriela Vargas

Gabriela Vargas Aguirre (Guayaquil, 1984) is an Ecuadorian poet. Her first collection of poems, “La ruta de la ceniza” (2017), which dealt with her mother’s death, received critical acclaim. She was able to publish the book thanks to a competitive grant from the Ministry of Culture and Patrimony. She has participated in various poetry festivals in Ecuador and other South American nations and her poems have been published in several anthologies. In 2020 her second poetry collection, “Lugares que no existen en las guías turísticas,” won the Vicente Huidobro International Poetry Prize and was published in Spain in 2021 by Valparaíso Ediciones.

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (1989) is a writer from Ecuador. In 2020 she published, “The Undocumented Americans,” which was among Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2020, it was also a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Writing for The New York Times, Caitlin Dickerson called the book “captivating and evocative.” Cornejo graduated from Harvard in 2011, becoming the first undocumented immigrant to do so. She was an Emerson Collective fellow, and as of September 2020 is a Ph.D. candidate in the American studies program at Yale. Her articles have been published in The Atlantic, Elle, Glamour, n+1, The New Republic, The New York Times, and Vogue.

Margarita Barriga

Margarita Barriga Pino (Guayaquil, 1940) is an Ecuadorian children’s literature author. She is married to Armando Baquerizo, with whom she has eight children and twenty grandchildren. She took Theater and Pedagogy courses and was a teacher of Puppetry and Education at the Santiago de Guayaquil Catholic University for fifteen years. She has performed puppet theater and theater plays. She has owned a bookstore since 1985, where she teaches reading encouragement workshops for children and teachers.

Kerly Palacios

Kerly Palacios Escobar (Guayaquil, 1994) is an Ecuadorian writer and poet. She has published two poetry collections, “El desvelo de mis versos” (2018) and “Secuelas” (2020). In 2021, she published her first novel, “No puedo hacerte el amor,” an erotic romance about a couple who cannot consummate their marriage. She claims to have written it in just four hours in December 2020, while character development and editing took another six months. She has taken part in the International Book Festival of Guayaquil.

Verónica Bonilla

Verónica Bonilla (Quito, June 11, 1962) is a prolific children’s book author, illustrator, and graphic designer from Ecuador. Her books have been published in Spanish, English and Chinese. She received China’s highest honor for a foreign writer, the 15th Special Book Award of China 2021, for her book Planatario en China, which was published in both Spanish and Chinese in 2019.

Maria Virginia Farinango

Maria Virginia Farinango (Otavalo, Ecuador) was born in an Indigenous Quichua community near Otavalo, Ecuador. In 2011, she and Laura Resau co-authored the novel The Queen of Water, based on the true story of her girlhood. After many years of running her own Andean crafts business and traveling extensively with her husband, Tino, an Andean musician, Maria Virginia earned a master’s degree in psychology. Maria Virginia now resides in Otavalo with her husband, son, and daughter, where she practices clinical psychology.

Jennie Carrasco Molina

Jennie Carrasco Molina (Ambato, 1955) is an Ecuadorian novelist, short story writer, poet, journalist, editor, university professor and holistic therapist. She has worked with the press and on women’s issues. Her works include the short story collection “La diosa en el espejo” (1995), the poetry collection “Arañas en mi vestido de seda” (2001), and the novel “Viaje a ninguna parte” (2004). In 2011 her poetry collection “Confesiones apocalípticas” won the prestigious Jorge Carrera Andrade Prize. Some of her poems have been translated into English.

Cecilia Velasco

Cecilia Velasco (Quito, May 1965) is an Ecuadorian author of children’s literature and was editor of the Central Bank’s magazine Difusión Cultural. She worked as a columnist for the Quito newspaper Hoy for nearly two decades. She teaches language and literature to children and adolescents. She was awarded the Norma-Fundalectura’s Latin American Prize for Children’s and Youth Literature in 2010. She currently lives in Guayaquil where she works as a teacher at The University of the Arts (UArtes).

Sandra Araya

Sandra Araya (Quito, 1980) is an Ecuadorian writer. In 2015, she received the La Linares Prize from the House of Ecuadorian Culture and the National Reading Campaign for her novella “La familia del Dr. Lehman.” Her short stories have appeared in magazines such as El Búho, Aceite de perro, Big Sur, Ómnibus, Casapalabras, Letras del Ecuador and Aurora Boreal. Her work has appeared in several anthologies. She has also written for the publications La Barra Espaciadora and Diners. In 2022, she publisher her first collection of short stories entitled, “Salvajes (del día después).” She is currently the editor of Babieca, a film and theater magazine.

María Paulina Briones

Mara Paulina Briones Layana (Guayaquil, 1974) is an Ecuadorian writer, editor, and professor. She currently teaches Journalism and Literature, as well as Journalistic Projects, at Casa Grande University and the University of the Arts (both in Guayaquil). She also runs the publishing company Cadaver Exquisito, which she founded in 2012, and has been the director of La Casa Morada, a cultural initiatives company that promotes reading, since 2009. She is featured in the bilingual poetry collection “Lengua me has vencido” (2017). Some of her stories have appeared in the Latin American Culture magazine Guaraguao, as well as the virtual magazines El Otro Lunes and Matavilela from Ecuador.

Camila Peña

Camila Peña (Cuenca, 1995) is an Ecuadorian poet, radio host and ballet dancer. In 2020 her first poetry book “Jardín Transparente,” won the Francisco Ruiz Udiel Hispanic American Poetry Award and will be published by Valparaíso Ediciones. She has a master’s degree in Artistic, Literary and Cultural Studies with a specialty in Comparative Literature, Literary Theory and Rhetoric from the Autonomous University of Madrid. In addition, she is a ballet dancer with 19 years of training and experience in creating artistic projects. She is currently the host of a cultural program on a radio station in Cuenca.

María Auxiliadora Balladares

María Auxiliadora Balladares Uquillas (Guayaquil, 1980) is an Ecuadorian writer, poet, and professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. She holds a Ph.D. in Latin American Literature from the University of Pittsburgh and has published widely in poetry, short stories, and essays. Her short story Jamón serrano won second place in the 10th Pablo Palacio Short Story Biennial, and her major works include Las vergüenzas (2013), Animal (2017), Guayaquil (2019), and Acantile duerme piloto (2022), which earned her the 2023 Jorge Carrera Andrade Award. Her writing often explores themes of identity, LGBTQI+ issues, and the natural world.

Ana Cecilia Blum

Ana Cecilia Blum (Guayaquil, March 17, 1972) is an Ecuadorian poet, essayist, fiction writer, editor, translator and journalist. She studied political and social sciences at the Vicente Rocafuerte Secular University in Guayaquil. She earned a postgraduate degree in “Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language” from Colorado State University (U.S.). She is the founder and editor-in-chief of the digital magazine Metaforología which publishes poetry, fiction and essays. She currently lives between Ecuador and the United States. Some of her work has been translated into English, French, Italian and Portuguese.

Zaida Letty Castillo

Zaida Letty Castillo de Saavedra (Guayaquil, February 5, 1890 – Guayaquil, July 30, 1977) was an Ecuadorian poet. She hailed from a family of journalists and writers. She wrote under the pseudonym Djenana, which she adopted from a character in “Les Désenchantées,” a French novel by Pierre Loti. She published her works in “El Telegrafo Literario,” a literary supplement of the newspaper El Telégrafo, owned by her family. She also directed the supplement “La mujer y el Arte” of the Peruvian newspaper “El Comercio,” as well as other publications in Ecuador and Venezuela. She was a founder of the Guayas branch of the House of Ecuadorian Culture and her poetry appears in several anthologies of Latin American poetry.

Natalí Romero Torres

Natalí Romero Torres (Manta) is a doctor, clinical sexologist, poet, and writer. She is the author of the poetry collection “El amor en tacones” (2018). Alexis Cuzme, director of the publishing house Tinta Ácida, commented that “El amor en tacones” was written for women. The book’s themes include sensuality, love, heartbreak, disappointment, and emotional support.