Gabriel José de la Concordia Garcí­a Márquez was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. Garcí­a Márquez, familiarly known as "Gabo" in his native country, was considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He studied at the University of Bogotá and later worked as a reporter for the Colombian newspaper El Espectador and as a foreign correspondent in Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Caracas, and New York. He wrote many acclaimed non-fiction works and short stories, but is best-known for his novels, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). His works have achieved significant critical acclaim and widespread commercial success, most notably for popularizing a literary style labeled as magical realism, which uses magical elements and events in order to explain real experiences. Some of his works are set in a fictional village called Macondo, and most of them express the theme of solitude. Having previously written shorter fiction and screenplays, García Márquez sequestered himself away in his Mexico City home for an extended period of time to complete his novel Cien años de soledad, or One Hundred Years of Solitude, published in 1967. The author drew international acclaim for the work, which ultimately sold tens of millions of copies worldwide. García Márquez is credited with helping introduce an array of readers to magical realism, a genre that combines more conventional storytelling forms with vivid, layers of fantasy. Another one of his novels, El amor en los tiempos del cólera (1985), or Love in the Time of Cholera, drew a large global audience as well. The work was partially based on his parents' courtship and was adapted into a 2007 film starring Javier Bardem. García Márquez wrote seven novels during his life, with additional titles that include El general en su laberinto (1989), or The General in His Labyrinth, and Del amor y otros demonios (1994), or Of Love and Other Demons. (Arabic: جابرييل جارسيا ماركيز) (Hebrew: גבריאל גארסיה מרקס)

Sergio Ramírez Mercado (born August 5, 1942 in Masatepe, Nicaragua) is a Nicaraguan writer and intellectual who served in the leftist Government Junta of National Reconstruction and as Vice President of the country 1985-1990 under the presidency of Daniel Ortega. Born in Masatepe in 1942, he published his first book, Cuentos, in 1963. He received his law degree from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua of León in 1964, where he obtained the Gold Medal for being the best student. In 1977 Ramírez became head of the "Group of Twelve", a group of prominent intellectuals, priests, businesspeople, and members of civil society who publicly stated their support for the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) in its struggle to topple the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. With the triumph of the Revolution in 1979, he became part of the Junta of the Government of National Reconstruction, where he presided over the National Council of Education. He was elected vice-president of Nicaragua in 1984 and was sworn in 1985.

Mario Benedetti (full name: Mario Orlando Hamlet Hardy Brenno Benedetti Farugia) was a Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet. Despite publishing more than 80 books and being published in twenty languages he was not well known in the English-speaking world. He is considered one of Latin America's most important 20th-century writers. Benedetti was a member of the 'Generation of 45', a Uruguayan intellectual and literary movement and also wrote in the famous weekly Uruguayan newspaper Marcha from 1945 until it was forcibly closed by the military government in 1973, and was its literary director from 1954. From 1973 to 1985 he lived in exile, and returned to Uruguay in March 1983 following the restoration of democracy.

Nacido dentro de una prominente familia de banqueros, sus padres fueron Francisco Bryce Arróspide y Elena Echenique Basombrío de Bryce. Su tatarabuelo, José Rufino Echenique, fue presidente del Perú en 1851, y su familia está relacionada con la francesa Flora Tristán y con el barón Clemens Althaus de Hesse. Bryce Echenique, educado en el seno de la oligarquía limeña, cursó sus estudios primarios, en el Inmaculado Corazón, y secundarios, en el Santa María Marianistas y, luego, tras un incidente en este colegio por el que hubo de ser hospitalizado, ingresó al San Pablo, un internado británico en Lima. En 1957, ingresó a la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos y se licenció en Derecho, obteniendo el título de Doctor en Letras en (1977). Fue profesor durante algún tiempo en el Colegio San Andrés (ex Anglo-Peruano) donde enseñó Castellano y Literatura.

Rodrigo Soto (San José, 1962). Escritor, guionista y productor audiovisual. Estudió filosofía en la Universidad de Costa Rica, y escritura de guiones cinematográficos en Cuba y Madrid. En 1983 publicó su primer libro de cuentos, "Mitomanías", con el que obtuvo el Premio Nacional de Cuento "Aquileo J. Echeverría". En este mismo género publicó después "Dicen que los monos éramos felices" (1996) -finalista en el Premio Literario "Casa de las Américas" 1992-, y "Floraciones y Desfloraciones" (2006), también ganador del Premio "Aquileo Echeverría" de ese año. Su obra narrativa incluye también las novelas "La Estrategia de la Araña" (1985), "Mundicia" (1992) y "El Nudo" (2004) y las novelas cortas "La Torre Abolida" (1994) y "Figuras en el Espejo" (2001). En España, la Editorial Periférica publicó sus novelas cortas "Gina" (2005), y "El país de la lluvia" (2008), ambas integrantes del ciclo "Figuras en el Espejo". En poesía publicó dos libros: "La Muerte lleva anteojos", en 1992, y "Damocles y otros poemas", en 2003. Ha sido incluido en numerosas antologías de cuento tanto en Costa Rica como en el extranjero, entre las que destacan la célebre "Mc Ondo" (Mondadori) y "Líneas Aéreas" (Lengua de Trapo).

José Emilio Pacheco Berny fue un poeta y ensayista mexicano nacido en Ciudad de México en 1939. Empezó a brillar desde muy joven en el panorama cultural mexicano, gracias a su dominio de las formas clásicas y modernas y al enfoque universal de su poesía. Además de poeta y prosista se ha consagrado también como eximio traductor, trabajando como director y editor de colecciones bibliográficas y diversas publicaciones y suplementos culturales. Ha sido docente universitario e investigador al servicio de entidades gubernamentales. Entre sus galardones se cuentan: Premio Nacional de Poesía, Premio Nacional de Periodismo Literario, Premio Xavier Villaurrutia, Premio Magda Donato, Premio José Asunción Silva en 1996,el Premio Octavio Paz en el año 2003, el Premio Federico García Lorca 2005, el Premio Iberoamericano de Poesía Pablo Neruda en 2004, la XVIII edición del Premio Reina Sofía de Poesía Iberoamericana en 2009 y el Premio Cervantes en 2009. De su obra poética se destacan: «Los elementos de la noche» en 1963, «El reposo del fuego» en 1966, «No me preguntes cómo pasa el tiempo» en 1969, «Irás y no volverás» en 1973, «Islas a la deriva» en 1976, «Desde entonces» en 1980, «Trabajos en el mar» en 1983, y «El silencio de la luna» poemas de 1985 1996. Falleció el 26 de Enero de 2014 en su ciudad natal. Le sobrevive su esposa, la periodista Cristina Pacheco.

Antonio Skármeta (born Esteban Antonio Skármeta Vranicic) is a Chilean writer, born November 7, 1940 in Antofagasta, Chile. He was born to Croatian immigrants from the Adriatic island of Brač, region of Dalmatia. His 1985 novel and film[1] Ardiente paciencia ("Ardent Patience") inspired the 1994 Academy Award-winning movie, Il Postino (The Postman). Subsequent editions of the book bore the title El cartero de Neruda (Neruda's Postman). His fiction has since received dozens of awards and has been translated into nearly thirty languages worldwide. Skármeta studied philosophy and literature both in Chile and at Columbia University in New York. From 1967 to 1973, the year he left Chile (first to Buenos Aires and later to West Berlin), he taught literature at the University of Chile. In 1987, he was a member of the jury at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival.[2] In 1989, after the end of Pinochet’s military dictatorship, the writer returned to Chile in order "to create political space for freedom". He hosted a television program on literature and the arts, which regularly attracted over a million viewers. From 2000 to 2003 he served as the Chilean ambassador in Germany. He teaches classes at Colorado College both in Santiago, and Colorado Springs. In 2011 his novel Los días del arco iris won the prestigious Premio Iberoamericano Planeta-Casa de América de Narrativa, one of the richest literary prizes in the world worth $200,000

Iván Egüez (Quito, 1944) es novelista, ensayista, y poeta ecuatoriano que Estudió en la Universidad Católica del Ecuador. Hoy en día es director del departamento de difusión cultural en la Universidad Católica. Este poeta comenzó su carrera con un grupo de jóvenes escritores y estudiantes. Estos jóvenes retaron al gobierno que mandaba en esa época y también a los otros gobiernos. Egüez perteneció al consejo de redacción de la revista “Bufanda del Sol”. Sus textos se han publicado en importantes medios nacionales y extranjeros. Su obra más famosa es La Linares, con la cual ganó el concurso Aurelio Espinosa Pólit en 1975.