Huáscar Robles Carrasquillo

The proverb “to laugh so as not to cry” is echoed in the work of Huáscar Robles. The humor of his novels, short stories and essays cushion the rugged path he covers in the Caribbean and the Puerto Rico that saw him grow up.  Huáscar is the author of the novel Demonios (Secta de los Perros, San Juan, 2022) on religious extremism in the years of political repression in Puerto Rico, and Puerto Príncipe: temblemos todos (La Cifra, Mexico City, 2017), a non-fiction book about Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. 

His fiction and essays have been published by Revista Temporales NYU, Evento Horizonte, Chicago Tribune, and others. For a decade he wrote opinion columns for El Nuevo Día from Puerto Rico and covered cultural, migratory and LGBTQ+ issues. His podcast Catatonia received praise from the LA Review of Books, and he has collaborated with CNN or other media. He was recently selected for The Masters' Review novel snippets competition, and received honorable mention in the CRAFT competition judged by Rebecca Makkai for his novel, Leda. 

As a journalist, Huáscar has published with The New York Times, Orlando Sentinel and the Center for Investigative Journalism. He has lectured at the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), New York University, Boston University, Columbia University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He has commented for CNN and NY1 News.

Puerto Rico Under Water, The Country Under My Skin, Los silencios de Santurce, and Portraits of Marassa are some of his photographic works in the United States and Puerto Rico, as well as the documentary La costa invisible, about the struggle of Haitian merchants in the town of Loíza, in Puerto Rico.

He received the Ochberg Scholarship from Columbia University, the Urban Scholarship from the Center for Justice and Journalism, an artistic residency from AS220, and the cultural exchange from the Brunetto School in Brazil. His collection Country Under My Skin was acquired by the Rhode Island Historical Society's Permanent Gallery. 

Huáscar has a master's degree in fine arts from New York University. 

His current project is the hybrid novel Los penúltimos días sobre la intersección del Caribe, the apocalypse and reggaeton.

Catalina Murillo Valverde

Costa Rica, 1970. Nació en un taxi. De los siete a los 17 años estudió en el Liceo Franco Costarricense. A los ocho años tenía un periódico mural, El Espeluznante, en una pared de la casa. En la Universidad de Costa Rica estudió comunicación, sin saber qué hacer con “ese gran talento tuyo”, del cual no había constancia.
Fue salvada por la Escuela Internacional de Cine, en Cuba. Ahí estudió guion, y entendió que contar historias era algo a lo que una podía dedicarse. De regreso a Costa Rica, publicó Largo domingo cubano, crónica. 
Con 28 años renació en Madrid, donde vivió un par de décadas, trabajando en teleseries y como profesora de guion y de escritura creativa en los Talleres Fuentetaja.
De vuelta en Costa Rica, publicó Tiembla, memoria, su libro más personal. Maybe Managua, novela que obtuvo el Premio Nacional de novela. Marzo todopoderoso y Eloísa vertical, novela de no ficción.
Su mayor pasión son sus talleres, Cata Oral. Toda su vida ha vivido de la palabra, escrita y hablada.
En marzo de 2024 Alfaguara publicó su obra más reciente, Una mujer insignificante.
 

Arnoldo Gálvez Suárez

Arnoldo Gálvez Suárez (Ciudad de Guatemala, 1982), ha publicado las novelas Los jueces (XI Premio Centroamericano de Novela Mario Monteforte Toledo en 2009) y Puente adentro (III Premio BAM Letras en 2015), traducida al alemán como Die rache der Mercedes Lima (Büchergilde, 2017). En 2013 publicó el libro de relatos La palabra cementerio (Punto de Lectura, 2013) y la crónica El círculo rojo (Plaza Pública).

Felipe Restrepo Pombo

Writer, editor and journalist. He has written six books that have been published in different languages. In 2017, he was selected as one of the best writers under 40 in Latin America. In 2021, he received the Premio Nacional de Periodismo Simón Bolívar in Colombia. He is the coordinator of the Premio Anagrama de Crónica and editor of the Crónica collection. He has worked with dozens of international media outlets. He has taught writing workshops in the United States, Spain, Mexico and Latin America. He is an occasional columnist for El País and Letras Libres. He was the editor of the Gatopardo magazine for six years.

Other activities involving the participant:

Meetings (and misunderstandings). En otro país
The Pleasure of Reading Gala