Diamela Eltit

Diamela Eltit (Santiago, Chile, 1949) studied literature at the Universidad de Chile, where she founded the Colectivo de Acciones de Arte (CADA). Her first novel, Lumpérica (1983), was followed by Por la patria (1983), and since then her writing has continued to enrich Spanish-language letters. El padre mío (1989) was her first book of testimony. She has published many books since, and her research has been recognized with a Guggenheim Grant (1985) and a Social Science Research Council Grant (USA, 1988). Her work has received the Premio Iberoamericano de Letras José Donoso (2010) and the Premio Municipal de Literatura de Santiago (2017), among other awards. She recently received the Premio Nacional de Literatura de Chile (2018), considered the highest literary honor in the country. She works as a professor at the Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana, and she has taught as a visiting professor at other universities, including at Columbia, Berkeley, Stanford, Washington, Seattle, Johns Hopkins, and Baltimore.