José de Piérola

Born in 1962, José de Piérola grew up in Celendín, Cajamarca, Peru, where he discovered literature. He studied engineering and worked as a systems consultant in Lima and Los Angeles until 1996, when he left his career as a consultant to dedicate himself to literary work. He has won the Premio Internacional Max Aub (Spain), the Premio Copé (Peru), and the Premio de Novela Corta del Banco Central de Reserva (Peru). He is the author of Shatranj (2005), El camino de regreso (2007), Summa caligramática (2009), Un beso del infierno (2010), and the short story collections Sur y Norte (2008), Máquina del tiempo (2015), and La llave del Paraíso (2018). His translations into Spanish include The Art of Fiction by Henry James (2007), The Stranger by Albert Camus (2015), and Dracula by Bram Stoker (2021); he also translated Quechua Magic-Religious Tales from Lucanamarca by José María Arguedas (2017) into English. His most recent book, Fabulations (2018), is a collection of minimalist stories that blend fable, history, and fiction. He earned his doctorate in literature from the University of California, San Diego, and he received the Regents Outstanting Teaching Award at the University of Texas, El Paso, where he currently directs the bilingual master’s in creative writing.