Gabriela Alemán
Richard E. Greenleaf Distinguished Visitor
- South America
Biography
Ecuadorian writer Gabriela Alemán is one of the premier voices in Latin American Literature today. Best known for her fiction, she has published 9 collections of short stories, 3 novels, 1 play, and 1 essay collection. Her most recent releases are the English translation of her 2007 novel Poso Wells and the Spanish-language novel Humo, which won the Premio Joaquín Gallegos Lara for fiction in Ecuador in 2017. The exceptional creativity of Alemán’s writing has garnered her international acclaim, including a Guggenheim fellowship and a place among the Bogotá39, the 2007 Hay Festivals list of the best 39 Latin American writers under the age of 39. In addition to her writing, Alemán has worked as a journalist, editor, researcher and translator, and has played professional women's basketball. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English Studies from Cambridge University, a Masters in Latin American Literature from the Universidad Andina Simón Bolivar, and a Ph.D. in Film Studies from Tulane, where her dissertation was supervised by Dr. Ana López. Now on the faculty of Universidad de San Francisco in Quito, she was a Greenleaf Scholar in Residence in the spring of 2019 at the Stone Center and returns this fall to continue the Latin American Writers Series at Tulane.
Additional Info
Selected Fiction
- 2024. Los limónes del huerto de Elisabeth. Fondo de Cultura Economica. Mexico.
- 2023. Matilde. Con el puño abierto. UCE. Quito
- 2022. Family Album. City Lights Books. San Francisco, USA.
- Poso Wells. Editorial Paralelo 13S, Bahia, Brazil
- 2021. Poso Wells Maroverlag. Augsburg, Germany.
- 2018. Poso Wells, Trans. Dick Cluster, Ed. City Lights Publishers, USA.
- 2017. Humo, Ed. Penguin Random House, Colombia.
- 2014. La muerte silba un blues, Ed. Penguin Random House, Colombia.
- 2014. Cusco, espejo de cosmografías, Antología del Relato Iberoamericano, Ed. Karina Pacheco Medrano, Cusco.
- 2014. Sólo cuento, Ed. Mayra Santos-Febres, UNAM, México D.F.
- 2013. Prisión de ámbar, Ed. Yiyi Jambo Cartonera, Paraguay (cuento).
- 2013. Amor y desamor en la Mitad del Mundo, Muestra del Cuento Ecuatoriano Contemporáneo, Ed. Arte y Literatura, La Habana.
- 2013. Utópica Penumbra, Antología de literatura fantástica ecuatoriana, Colección Sur Editores, La Habana.
- 2013. Utópica Penumbra, Antología de literatura fantástica ecuatoriana, Campana de Lectura Eugenio Espejo, Quito.
- 2011. Ecuador de Feria, Ed. Raúl Vallejo, Ed. Planeta , Bogotá.
- 2011. Cinco metros de cuentos perversos, Ed. Textofilia, México, 2011.
- 2010. Álbum de Familia, Ed. Estruendomudo, Lima, Perú.
Research
Latin American Contemporary Literature, Latin American Film
Degrees
- PhD, Tulane University, Spanish & Portuguese, 2003
- Magíster en Letras Latinoamericanas, Universidad Andina Simón Bolivar, 1996
- Diploma of English Studies, Cambridge University, Translations Degree: Espanol-Inglés & Inglés-Espanol, 1991
Academic Experience
- Professor, University of San Francisco, Quito
- Professor, Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar, Quito.
Distinctions
- Kisak Family Foundation, Artist in Residence, 2022
- Miembro correspondiente de la Academia Ecuatoriana de la Lengua, Correspondiente de la Real Española, 2021.
- National Endowment for the Arts, grant for the translation of Humo, 2021.
- One of five finalists for the Premio Hispanoamericano de Cuento Gabriel García Márquez, 2015
- Guggenheim Fellowship, 2006
Languages
- Spanish
- Portuguese
- English
Overseas Experience
- France
- Mexico
- Colombia
Selected Publications
- 2023. "Fill in the Blank", Literature and Arts of the Americas, Volume 56 Issue 2.
- 2015. “In the Daughter´s Name”, El estado de las cosas, Cine latinoamericano en el nuevo milenio, Editorial Iberoamericana Vervuert: Madrid.
- 2012. Andean Gothic” en Horrofílmico: aproximaciones al cine de terror latinoamericano, Editorial Isla Negra, Puerto Rico.
- 2009. “At the Margin of the Margins: Contemporary Ecuadorian Exploitation Cinema and the Local Pirate Market”, Epilogue, Latsploitation, Exploitation Cinemas, and Latin America. Edited by Victoria Ruétalo, Dolores Tierney, Routledge, London.
