Elma Correa

She's a storyteller. She coordinates an international writers' meeting in Baja California and manages @habitaciones_propias, a virtual community where the women of the world share the spaces where they create. She has a degree in Spanish language and literature , a master in sociocultural studies and doctor in society, space and power. She teaches at the Faculties of Arts, Pedagogy and Human Sciences of the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) and teaches creative writing workshops. She has been a fellow of the Stimulus Program for Artistic Creation and Development of Baja California (PECDABC) and the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA). Her texts have been published in national and international journals, and have been included in various anthologies. She compiled Vacunas contra la poesía (SCBC, 2020), the Mexican section of Frontera Norte. Antología de narrativa chilena y mexican (Cinosargo, 2020), Ni una sola palabra (UANL, 2021) y Mexicanas 2 (Fondo Blanco, 2022). She wrote Que parezca un accidente (Nitro/Press, 2018), Mentiras que no te conté (UDG, 2021) with which she received the XX Juan José Arreola National Short Story Award; Llorar de fiesta (BUAP, 2022), Lo simple (INBAL, 2023) San Luis Potosí Amparo Dávila Fine Arts Short Story Award 2022, and La novia del león (Nitro/Press, 2024). 

Other activities involving the participant:

The Pleasure of Reading Gala
Literature with eggs and machaca
Literature between dogs and cats

Brenda Lozano

Brenda Lozano (Ciudad de México, 1981) es narradora, ensayista y editora. Estudió en México y en Estados Unidos. Ha tenido residencias de escritura en Estados Unidos, Europa, América del Sur y Japón. Ha sido antologada en diversas publicaciones, ha impartido cursos universitarios y talleres, y se ha involucrado en proyectos de cine y arte contemporáneo. Edita en la revista literaria Make de Chicago, y es parte de la editorial Ugly Duckling Presse, de Nueva York. Su primera novela fue Todo nada (2009), le siguen Cuaderno ideal (Alfaguara, 2014), y el libro de cuentos Cómo piensan las piedras (Alfaguara, 2017). Fue reconocida por el Conaculta, Hay Festival y el Consejo Británico como una de las escritoras menores de cuarenta años más importantes de su país, y forma parte de Bogotá39, una selección de los nuevos autores más destacados de Latinoamérica. En 2019, Cuaderno ideal (Loop), traducido por Annie McDermott, recibió el Premio de Traducción English PEN. Escribe quincenalmente una columna en el periódico El País y vive en la Ciudad de México. 

Eloy Tizón

Invitado de Honor

(Madrid, 1964) Author of four storybooks: Plegaria para pirómanos (2023), Técnicas de iluminación (2013), Parpadeos (2006) and Velocidad de los jardines (1992 y 2017); of three novels: La voz cantante (2004), Labia (2001) and Seda salvaje (1995), and the literary essay Herido leve. Treinta años de memoria lectora (2019).

He has been included among the best European storytellers in the anthology Best European Fiction 2013, with a prologue by John Banville. His works are part of numerous anthologies and have been translated into various languages: English, French, Italian, German, Slovenian, Finnish and Arabic.

A frequent contributor to the media from a young age, he wrote the “Vértigos” column in El Cultural for four years.

He has taught workshops on short fiction stories at the Universidad de Almería (UAL) and at different teaching centers such as Fuentetaja, La Casa Encendida, Hotel Kafka and the Círculo de Bellas Artes.

He directed, in 2022 and 2023, the two editions of the Spanish literary storybook festival, held in the Toledo town of Torrijos and named TorrijosCuenta.

Other activities involving the participant:

"Short forms"

Alberto Chimal

(Toluca, Mexico, 1970) is a writer and creative writing professor. Among other recognitions, in 2002 he received the Premio Nacional de Cuento and in 2014 the Premio de Narrativa Colima, both granted by Mexico’s National Institute of Fine Arts, for his short story collections Éstos son los días (2004) and Manda fuego (2013), respectively. In 2013, his novel La torre y el jardín was a finalist for the Premio Internacional de Novela Rómulo Gallegos. In 2016, his book La madre y la muerte / La partida, co-authored with Alberto Laiseca and Nicolás Arispe, was selected for the White Ravens catalog of the Frankfurt Book Fair. In 2019, his children’s book La Distante won the Premio internacional de la Fundación Cuatrogatos, and in 2021, his young adult novel La noche en la zona M won the Premio Internacional del Banco del Libro.

In addition, he has published two other novels, two creative writing manuals, two essay collections, and around twenty short story collections. As a screenwriter, he wrote the feature films 7:19 (2016), directed by Jorge Michel Grau, and Confesiones (2023), directed by Carlos Carrera. He has also written comics, including a collaboration for the graphic novel Batman:El Mundo (2021), published by DC Comics. For many years, he has been a promoter of writing through digital media and a prominent figure in fantasy literature in Mexico and Latin America.

His texts have been translated into a dozen languages and have appeared in international anthologies. He lives in Mexico City with his wife, fellow writer Raquel Castro.

www.albertochimal.com

Other activities involving the participant:

Do you dream of electric sheep?
Annual International Storytellers Conference
Annual International Storytellers Conference

Atenea Cruz

(Mexico, 1984)

My first contact with short stories was thanks to my mother: I remember her reading to me Oscar Wilde, Francisco Hinojosa, One Thousand and One Nights. I remember her telling me stories from popular folklore, with that ability to create a character just using the tone of her voice. My grandfather was a natural storyteller, maybe that's why narrating seems to me a primordial form of communication, a manifestation of affection. 
    I grew up with many short stories at hand: cheap editions of the Grimm Brothers, by Andersen; comics of Little Lulu, Archie, Donald Duck. When they were not enough, I moved on to the Public Library. Later I started writing my own stories and went from one literary workshop to another. My desire to continue reading pushed me to leave my city: I studied a Bachelor's degree in Literature in Zacatecas and a Master's Degree in Mexican Literature Studies in Guadalajara, but I always return to my home, Durango, from where I teach online classes, although I prefer face-to-face.
    I have published five books of short stories, three of poetry and a novel (I keep to myself, out of shame, my early writings). I have won scholarships, creation residencies and some awards.  
Literature has given me everything: studies, work, travel, friends, love and even an occasional enemy; in return, I decided to give him my honesty and my life, which are the only things I really own. 

Other activities involving the participant:

Literature with eggs and machaca

Rocío Ravera

(Uruguay)

I was born in Uruguay on September 21, 1974. I’m originally from Tala, a small city in this country, but I currently live in Montevideo, the place that adopted me, along with my husband and my three children.

I have always been surrounded by books and I consider myself a voracious reader, but I didn't venture into writing until 2017, when I decided to participate in the creative writing workshop “A cuatro manos”, directed by Fabián Severo and Paula Simonetti.

I have been working as a school librarian for more than twenty years, a profession that I love and that I perform with a lot of passion.

I was part of different literature and writing workshops, and published my works in literary magazines and blogs, such as Pretextos por Escrito (2017), miNatura (2018), Burak (2021), Terminus (2021), Virguliéresis (2022), Sarabatana, Trazos (2024) and Letralia (2024).

I published my first book in 2022, an anthology of short stories titled Cualquiercosario, a work that won the Gold Medal at the International Latino Book Awards in the category best collection of short stories in Spanish. In 2024 it was reissued by the Ecuadorian publishing house Alectrión.

In addition to writing fiction, I also write poetry. My poems are part of the poetic literary anthology Voces en vuelo, from the Colombian collective BBC, and in the book Cajita de poemas, from the Uruguayan publishing house Ocho Ojos.

Luis Miguel Rivas

Nació en Cartago, Valle, Colombia, pero creció en Envigado, Antioquia. Ha publicado los libros de relatos Los amigos míos se viven muriendo, ¿Nos vamos a ir como estamos pasando de bueno? y Malabarista nervioso; la novela Era más grande el muerto, los libros de crónicas Tareas no hechas y Más tareas no hechas (Editorial Planeta- Seix Barral), además de la colección de poemas Hoy no quiero metáforas (Angosta Editorial). En 2023 fue el ganador del Premio Nacional de Literatura otorgado por Ministerio de Cultura de Colombia por su libro de relatos Malabarista nervioso. Ha sido colaborador de las revistas Soho, El Malpensante, de Colombia; Crítica de México, y Suelta de Guatemala; de los periódicos El Espectador, El Colombiano y Universo Centro de Colombia, y de la revista Explorador- Le Monde Diplomatique, edición latinoamericana.

Other activities involving the participant:

National Awards

Alberto Chimal

(Toluca, Mexico, 1970) is a writer and creative writing professor. Among other recognitions, in 2002 he received the Premio Nacional de Cuento and in 2014 the Premio de Narrativa Colima, both granted by Mexico’s National Institute of Fine Arts, for his short story collections Éstos son los días (2004) and Manda fuego (2013), respectively. In 2013, his novel La torre y el jardín was a finalist for the Premio Internacional de Novela Rómulo Gallegos. In 2016, his book La madre y la muerte / La partida, co-authored with Alberto Laiseca and Nicolás Arispe, was selected for the White Ravens catalog of the Frankfurt Book Fair. In 2019, his children’s book La Distante won the Premio internacional de la Fundación Cuatrogatos, and in 2021, his young adult novel La noche en la zona M won the Premio Internacional del Banco del Libro.

In addition, he has published two other novels, two creative writing manuals, two essay collections, and around twenty short story collections. As a screenwriter, he wrote the feature films 7:19 (2016), directed by Jorge Michel Grau, and Confesiones (2023), directed by Carlos Carrera. He has also written comics, including a collaboration for the graphic novel Batman:El Mundo (2021), published by DC Comics. For many years, he has been a promoter of writing through digital media and a prominent figure in fantasy literature in Mexico and Latin America.

His texts have been translated into a dozen languages and have appeared in international anthologies. He lives in Mexico City with his wife, fellow writer Raquel Castro.

www.albertochimal.com

Other activities involving the participant:

Do you dream of electric sheep?
Annual International Storytellers Conference
Annual International Storytellers Conference

Ismael Ramos

Invitado de Honor

(Mazaricos, A Coruña, 1994) is a Galician-language writer. His first fiction book, A parte fácil (Xerais, 2023), has been published in Spanish by Las afueras (La parte fácil) and in Catalan by Angle (La part fácil). He is also the author of three poetry books: Lixeiro (Xerais, 2021), Lumes (Apiario, 2017) and Os fillos da fame (Xerais, 2016). Two of them have been translated into Spanish: Ligero (La Bella Warsaw, 2021) and Fuegos (La Bella Warsaw, 2019), and one into Portuguese: Fogos (Do lado esquerdo, 2022).

He has received the Premio Nacional de Poesía Joven Award (2022) presented by the Ministry of Culture, and the Javier Morote Award (2019), presented by the independent Spanish bookstores (CEGAL) for the best new author.

As a writer, he is a frequent collaborator with eldiario.es.

Other activities involving the participant:

"Short forms"
The gift of the poem
Meetings (and misunderstandings). Challenges of recent Spanish narrative

Tamara Silva Bernaschina

(Uruguay, 2000)

I was born in the city of Minas, in the mountains of Uruguay, in the year 2000. I grew up between my house and my grandparents' houses. When I learned to read and write, about the age of six, I started to imagine better. I wrote down my first stories at that time. I used to read them to my sister. At the age of fifteen I moved to the countryside, in Aiguá, a city in the Department of Maldonado. Chester, Mimi, Diana and Linda live there, happy dogs. I am a student of the Bachelor of Arts of the Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences in Montevideo.

I am the author of the book of short stories Desastres naturales, my debut feature, published last year by Estuario editora, in Uruguay. This short story won two Bartolomé Hidalgo awards for Narrative and Revelation. That book took me to places I had never been before, and brought me closer to other authors I admire. Many joys. I also wrote Temporada de ballenas, a novel that was published in Uruguay last September and received an honorable mention in the Juan Carlos Onetti literary contest. This year, the Mexican publishing house Paraíso Perdido published Desastres naturales, and that is a reason for immense emotion. I've only been to Mexico twice, and I love it more and more.

Other activities involving the participant:

Latin America Viva
National Awards

Carlos Aletto

(Argentina, 1967)

Nací en Mar del Plata en 1967, una ciudad que el viento asentó junto al mar y que ha servido de escenario para algunas de mis ficciones. Soy escritor y licenciado en letras.

Entre mis obras destaco Once segundos, una novela donde el tiempo se detiene en el segundo gol de Maradona a los ingleses, y Anatomía de la melancolía, una mirada íntima sobre el Renacimiento. En los cuentos de Antes de perder, exploro el final de la infancia.

Fui editor de la revista Unicornio, un caballo con suerte, y director del Suplemento Literario Télam, desde donde tuve la oportunidad de dar visibilidad a numerosas obras argentinas.

En 2008, el jurado me destacó por unanimidad entre 6,660 participantes, otorgándome el primer lugar en el Concurso de Cuento Clarín. En 2014 obtuve el Primer Premio Municipal de Literatura de Buenos Aires.

Como periodista despliego mi mirada crítica en medios de renombre. En Clarín escribo la columna 'Vidas para leer' de la revista Viva. En Página/12 colaboro con notas en Radar Libros, destacando historias sobre libros y personajes.

Además de escritor y periodista, soy padre de tres hijos: Lorenzo, Santino y Oliverio, nombres que, ¿quién sabe?, algún día tal vez protagonizarán uno de mis cuentos, o ya lo hacen en la historia que vivo a diario.

Other activities involving the participant:

Latin America Viva

Alberto Chimal

(Toluca, Mexico, 1970) is a writer and creative writing professor. Among other recognitions, in 2002 he received the Premio Nacional de Cuento and in 2014 the Premio de Narrativa Colima, both granted by Mexico’s National Institute of Fine Arts, for his short story collections Éstos son los días (2004) and Manda fuego (2013), respectively. In 2013, his novel La torre y el jardín was a finalist for the Premio Internacional de Novela Rómulo Gallegos. In 2016, his book La madre y la muerte / La partida, co-authored with Alberto Laiseca and Nicolás Arispe, was selected for the White Ravens catalog of the Frankfurt Book Fair. In 2019, his children’s book La Distante won the Premio internacional de la Fundación Cuatrogatos, and in 2021, his young adult novel La noche en la zona M won the Premio Internacional del Banco del Libro.

In addition, he has published two other novels, two creative writing manuals, two essay collections, and around twenty short story collections. As a screenwriter, he wrote the feature films 7:19 (2016), directed by Jorge Michel Grau, and Confesiones (2023), directed by Carlos Carrera. He has also written comics, including a collaboration for the graphic novel Batman:El Mundo (2021), published by DC Comics. For many years, he has been a promoter of writing through digital media and a prominent figure in fantasy literature in Mexico and Latin America.

His texts have been translated into a dozen languages and have appeared in international anthologies. He lives in Mexico City with his wife, fellow writer Raquel Castro.

www.albertochimal.com

Other activities involving the participant:

Do you dream of electric sheep?
Annual International Storytellers Conference
Annual International Storytellers Conference