Juan Manuel Roca (Medellín, Colombia, 1946) is a poet, fiction writer, and essayist. He served for ten years as coordinator and then director of the "Magazín Dominical" of the newspaper El Espectador in Bogotá. For twenty-five years (1986-2011) he was director of the Casa Silva poetry workshop. He has received numerous awards for his work, both in Colombia and internationally. His verse collections include Lunca de ciegos, Los ladrones nocturnos, País secreto, Ciudadano de la noche, La farmacia del ángel, Las hipótesis de nadie, Testamentos, Biblia de pobres, Temporada de estatuas, Pasaporte del apátrida, and No es prudente recibir caballos de madera de parte de un griego. In 2016, he published his complete poetry, with the title Silabario del camino. He currently directs the poetry specialization of the Master's program in Creative Writing at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.