Fanny Carrión de Fierro

Fanny Carrión de Fierro (1936) is an Ecuadorian poet, literary critic, essayist and university professor. She is a 4-time winner of Ecuador’s Gabriela Mistral National Poetry Award. She has published essays on a variety of topics, including politics, culture, and society. Her poems have also appeared in English-language anthologies such as “These Are Not Sweet Girls: Poetry by Latin American Women” (1994) and “Eye to Eye-Women: Their Words and Worlds” (1997). She has taught at several universities in Ecuador and the United States. She is currently a professor at Ecuador’s Pontifical Catholic University (Quito). She has also been a visiting professor and Fulbright Scholar at Keene State College in New Hampshire, Willamette University in Oregon, and several other universities in Ecuador. Her work has been translated into English.

Family

Fanny Carrión de Fierro’s parents were Luis Enrique Carrión Carvajal and Leonor Acosta from Ibarra, Ecuador. Carrión de Fierro married Gustavo Adolfo Fierro Zevallos (Ph.D. in linguistics). They had four children: Gustavo Adolfo, Patricia Natalia, Luis Alberto and Pablo Fernando.

Education

She received a Doctorate in Literature from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (Quito, 1981), as well as a Master of Arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Bachelor’s degree (Licenciatura) in Education from the Central University of Ecuador.

She has been on the board of the Association of College Professors of the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador in Quito. She is also on the board on several development non-governmental organizations.

Member of

“Grupo America” – an Ecuadorian literary group.
Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana [Ecuadorian House of Culture], Literature Section.

Works

Poetry

En la Voz del Silencio (1980)
Ten poems translated into English included in the anthology These are not Sweet Girls, Poetry by Latin American Women, edited by Marjorie Agosin (1994)
Where light was born: A personal anthology of selected poems by Fanny Carrión de Fierro (1999; translated by Sally Cheney Bell)
Donde nació la Luz: Antología Personal (2000)
Desde el beso del tiempo and Esta voz, in Poetic Voices without Borders, edited by Robert L. Girón (2005)
Alfa Amor, Donde Nació la Luz and Geografía del Corazón, in Poetic Voices without Borders 2, edited by Robert L. Girón (2009)
Ecuador, on erotic attraction, “Hidden Pleasure” in Eye to Eye-Women: Their Words and Worlds, edited by Vanessa Baird, introduction by Anita Desai (1997)

Short stories

The Golden Ear of Corn and Other Stories, bilingual collection of short stories. Centro de Publicaciones de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, October 2010.

Criticism

José de la Cuadra: Precursor del realismo mágico hispanoamericano (1993)
Los Sangurimas, novela precursora de Cien Años de soledad, an essay about the novel “Los Sangurimas” by José de la Cuadra
Cien Años de Soledad, Historia y Mito de lo Americano, in: Lectura de García Márquez (Doce Estudios), edited by Manuel Corrales Pascual (Quito: Centro de Publicaciones de la Pontifica Universidad Católica de Ecuador, 1975)

Awards

Gabriela Mistral National Poetry Award (1958, 1961, 1981 and 1985)
National Poetry Award of Ecuador (1962)
“Juana de Ibarbuoru” Poetry Prize, Montevideo, Uruguay (1995).

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