Gloria Guardia

Gloria Guardia (born 1940) is a Panamanian novelist, essayist and journalist. A Fellow of the Panamanian Academy of Letters and Associate Fellow of the Spanish Royal Academy, and the Columbian Academy of Letters.

Education

Guardia studied philosophy and literature at the Complutense University in Madrid and Spanish literature and Iberoamerica at Madrid's Instituto de Cultura Hispánica. In the United States, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree "cum laude" from Vassar College in 1962 and Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1968.

Literary contributions

Her literary work includes novels, essays, short stories and critical studies. She has been awarded several literary prizes for her works, including an award from the Society of Spanish and Iberoamerican Writers in 1961, the Ricardo Miró National Prize for an essay or novel in 1966, the Central American Novel Prize in 1976, a prize from the magazine Lotería in 1971 and 1984, and the National Story Prize from the city of Bogotá, Colombia, in 1996. In 2000, her novel "'Libertad en llamas" was one of two finalists for the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Novel Prize in Mexico.

International contributions

From 1975 to 1995, she worked as a syndicated columnist for several periodicals, including La prensa, Panama America, and Cambio. She served as an ABC News correspondent in Panama and the consultant for Canal (channel) 5 (FETV) in Panama. In 1990 she collaborated on the twenty -first edition of the Dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy (DRAE) and the second edition of the Dictionary of "Colombianismos" for the Columbian Academy. She is the founder of the Panamanian chapter of the PEN-International and served as one of the seven executive council members of PEN from 1997 to 2002. Until 2004, she was a member of the Board of Trustees of the PEN International foundation. She currently serves as the vice president of International PEN, vice president of the International Foundation of Rubén Darío, and president of the Iberian American PEN Foundation International.

Personal life

Guardia lives with her husband, Ricardo Alfaro Arosemena. She spends time in both Bogotá and Panama.

References

* [http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/ International PEN UK]
* [http://www.rah.es/ Royal Spanish Academy of History] (in Spanish)
* [http://www.binal.ac.pa/ Biblioteca Nacional de Panamá] (in Spanish)