Lola Ancira
Querétaro, México, 1987.
Lola is the author of four short story collections:
Tusitala de óbitos (2013)
El vals de los monstruos (2018)
Tristes sombras (2021)
Despojos (2022)
Lola has published a number of short stories, essays and literature reviews across various print and digital media platforms and her work has appeared in a number of anthologies. She has been awarded scholarships by the FLM and by the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA) of Mexico. Her latest book, Despojos, won the 2021 Certamen Nacional de Literatura Laura Méndez de Cuenca in the short story category.
She currently runs a workshop on short story writing and teaches a course on fantasy literature, all while working on her first novel and next short story collection.
letrasymaullidos.blogspot.com
twitter.com/Lola_Tusitala
instagram.com/lola_lien
Laura Baeza
Campeche, México, 1988.
Laura is the author of five books:
Margaritas en la boca (2012)
Ensayo de orquesta (2017)
Época de cerezos (2019)
Niebla ardiente (2021)
Una grieta en la noche (2022)
Laura's first collection of short stories Margaritas en la boca was published by Simiente in 2012. In 2017, she won the National Award for short story Julio Torri with the book Ensayo de orquesta (FETA 2017) and the National Narrative Award Gerardo Cornejo with Época de cerezos. In 2018 she was selected by the International Book Fair Guadalajara as part of "Al ruedo: ocho talentos mexicanos". Her first novel, Niebla Ardiente (Alfaguara), was published in 2021 and was selected to be a part of Mapa de las Lenguas 2022. She was shortlisted for the VII Ribera del Duero Prize and for the First Novel Prize 2022. Her most recent book is a collection of short stories, Una grieta en la noche (Páginas de espuma, 2022).
Jazmina Barrera
Mexico City, México, 1988.
Jazmina is the author of five books:
Cuerpo extraño (2013)
Cuaderno de faros (2017)
Linea nigra (2020)
Los nombres de los animales (2021)
Punto de cruz (2021)
Jazmina's first book, Cuerpo extraño, was awarded the Latin American Voices prize by Literal Publishing, in 2013. Her second book was longlisted for the von Rezzori award; and its English version was chosen for the Indie Next list by Indie Bound. Jazmina's third book, Linea nigra, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize, the CANIEM's Book of the year award and the Amazon Primera Novela Award. Her books have been published in nine countries and translated to English, Dutch, Italian and French.
Jazmina has a Master's Degree in Creative Writing in Spanish from New York University, which she completed with the support of a Fulbright grant.
She is also editor and co-founder of Ediciones Antílope.
instagram.com/jaztronomia
twitter.com/Jaztronomia
jazminabarrera.com
Photograph by Rodrigo Jardón
Helene Bukowski
Berlin, Germany, 1993.
Helene is the author of two novels:
Milk Teeth (2019)
The Warrior (2022)
Helene studied at the Hildesheim Literature Institute and, in addition to writing, also runs creative writing courses and workshops. Her debut novel Milk Teeth (Milchzähne, 2019) was nominated for the Mara Cassens Prize, the Rauris Literature Prize and the Kranichstein Literature Prize, among others. It has been translated into several languages and a film adaptation is in the works. Her latest novel, The Warrior (Die Kriegerin, 2022), was selected as one of the 10 'Books at Berlinale' for their 2023 programme.
instagram.com/helenenotcharlesbukowski
Photograph by Rabea Edel
Aura García-Junco
Ciudad de México, 1988.
Aura is the author of three novels and an essay:
Anticitera, artefacto dentado (2018)
El día que aprendí que no sé amar (2021)
Mar de piedra (2022)
Dios fulmine a la que escriba sobre mí (2023)
Aura studied Classical Literature at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She is an author, screenwriter, critic, columnist and occasional translator. She was a scholar at the Foundation for Mexican Letters (2016) and the FONCA Young Creators Program (2014, 2017, and 2021). In 2021, she was selected by Granta as one of the 25 Best Young Spanish-Language Novelists. May God Blast the Woman Who Writes About Me, translated by Heather Cleary, is the first of her novels to be translated into English.
auragarciajunco.com
twitter.com/aauuurrraa
instagram.com/aura_gj
Urszula Honek
Racławice, Poland, 1987.
Urszula is the author of three poetry books and a short story collection:
Sporysz (2015)
Pod wezwaniem (2018)
Zimowanie (2021)
Białe noce (2022)
In 2013, she won the Grand Prix in the 9th Rainer Maria Rilke Poetry Competition. Her debut brought her to the final of the K.I. Gałczyński Orfeusz Poetry Award and it was also shortlisted for the “Złoty Środek Poezji” National Literary Competition. Urszula's second poetry book, Pod wezwaniem, received the Kraków Book of the Month award and another nomination for the Orfeusz Award. For her third book, Zimowanie, she received the Stanisław Barańczak Award-Scholarship (part of the Poznań Literary Award), her third Orfeusz Award nomination and a Gdynia Literary Award nomination. She has held scholarships from the Maria Anna Siemieńska Grazella Foundation (2016), as well as from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2017). Urszula also received the Kraków UNESCO City of Literature Prize, in 2020, and the Adam Włodek Prize, in 2021. She made her prose debut in 2022 with a collection of short stories, Białe noce, which was nominated for both Polityka's Passport Award and the Grand Continent Prize, in 2022. The book was nominated for the Witold Gombrowicz Literary Prize and won the Conrad Award, in 2023. Urszula also won the Kościelski Award, which is given to the most promising Polish writer under the age of 40.
Cemile Sahin
Wiesbaden, Germany, 1990.
Cemile is the author of two novels:
TAXI (2019)
ALL DOGS DIE (2020)
Cemile's artistic practice operates between film, photography, sculpture, and literature. Freely deploying different media, without privileging one or the other, her work embodies today's synchronicity of image- and text-based communications. Integrating images into her books and text in her image-world, she moves with extraordinary agility between words and pictures, between still and moving image, between text as form, sign, and symbol. Deliberately elliptical and fragmentary, her work's narrative strategies draw on an episodic format of narration established by contemporary TV series and internet videos. In her practice, Cemile acknowledges the subjectiveness and codedness of all storytelling, and its instrumentalisation by the media. Her works find a giddy rhythm in the knowing use of the dynamics of these processes, sweeping away her spectators to unexpected, and sometimes uncomfortable realisations, among them that the writing of history is, and always has been, determined by constantly shifting perspectives.
Her debut novel Taxi was published in 2019, followed by her book Alle Hunde sterben in 2020, both of which are integral parts of her artistic practice. For Taxi, Sahin was awarded the Alfred Döblin-Medaille. In 2019 she was awarded the ars viva 2020 prize for Visual Arts. The same year she was a fellow of the JUNGE AKADEMIE at the Akademie der Künste Berlin. In 2021, Cemile received the AArtist in Residence-Stipend, awarded by the German Foreign Ministry in cooperation with the LVBG, the Association of Berlin Galleries. In 2023, Cemile received the CIRCA PRIZE 2023 for her film Four Ballads for my Father - Spring.
instagram.com/___cemilesahin___
estherschipper.com/artists/119-cemile-sahin
Photograph by Miriam Marlene Waldner