Luisa Valenzuela. Born in Buenos Aires, she has lived in Paris, Barcelona, México, and New York. She is Doctora Honoris Causa from Knox University; member of the Academia de Artes y Ciencias of Puerto Rico; Medalla  Machado de Assis from the Academia Brasileña de Letras; fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities. She has taught at Columbia and New York Universities, received a Guggenheim Fellowship and taken part in the International Writers Workshop in Iowa. She is a syndicated columnist of La Nación of Buenos Aires. Her novels include: Hay que sonreír, Como en la guerra, Cola de lagartija, Novela negra con argentinos, Realidad nacional desde la cama and Travesía. Short stories: Aquí pasan cosas raras, Libro que no muerde, Cambio de armas, Donde viven las águilas, and Simetrías. She has just published a collection of “minicuentos”, Brevs (2004)

Mempo Giardinelli: Born in Resistencia, Chaco (1947). Rómulo Gallegos Award winner (1993) is one of the renowned argentine writers. He founded and edited Puro cuento magazine (1986-92) and taught at Universidad Iberoamericana (México), Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina), and in the US at Wellesley College, University of Virginia, University of Louisville, Gettysburg College, and Florida State University. He has published short stories; essays as El género negro; and several novels: Luna caliente, El cielo con las manos, Santo Oficio de la Memoria, Imposible equilibrio and Final de Novela en Patagonia. His latest novels: Cuestiones interiores and Visitas después de hora.

Liliana Heker was born in 1943 in Buenos Aires.  In Argentina, this versatile author is known not only through her numerous novels and shorter narratives, but also through being a socially committed journalist.  As chief editor of the literary periodicals 'El escarabajo de oro' (1961-1974) and 'El Ornitorrinco' (1977-1986) she has influenced in a decisive way the literary life of her home country for over twenty years.

Liliana Heker’s career began extraordinarily early.  At the age of just 17 she met Abelardo Castillo, writer and chief editor of the literary periodical 'El grillo de papel', who introduced her as an editor of the magazine.  In 1966 she published her first collection of short narratives, 'Los que vieron la zarza', for which she received the prize of the Cuban 'Casa de las Américans'.  In subsequent years further collections appeared: 'Acuario' (1972) and 'Un resplandor que se acabó en el mundo'.  In 1987 her first novel 'Zona de clivaje' was published, for which Liliana Heker was awarded the 'Primer Premio Municipal'.

Guillermo Martínez (July 29th, 1962), lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and has a Ph. D. in Mathematical Logic. He pursued post doctoral studies during two years in Oxford, England. His first book of short stories, Infierno Grande (“Vast Hell”), won the National Funding for the Arts Award, one of the most important literary prizes in his country. Several of those stories were translated to different languages including English and German. His first novel, Acerca de Roderer (“Regarding Roderer”), was acclaimed by the critics and has been included in a collection of the best argentinian books of the century. It was published in the States by St. Martin’s Press and also in Spain, Norway and Serbia.

Later on he published the novel La mujer del maestro (“The Woman of the Master”) and the book of essays Borges y la matemática (“Borges and Mathematics”). In 2003 he was awarded with the Planeta Prize for his novel Crímenes Imperceptibles (“The Oxford Murders”). This novel was during six months in the top list of best sellers in Argentina, and was published with great success in Spain, England, France, German, and Italy. Translations rights have been sold to other 30 countries and there is going to be a film adaptation in 2006 by Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia. In 2005 he published La fórmula de la inmortalidad (“The Immortality Formula”) a book of essays about literature. He took part of the International Writing Programm of the Iowa University (EEUU) and he got grants for residencies in The Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada), The MacDowell Colony (EEUU) and The Civitella Ranieri Foundation (Italy). He writes regularly essays, articles and literary reviews for La Nacion and other newspapers.

Cristina Piña: Born in Buenos Aires (1949). Professor of Literary Theory at the Universidad Nacional of Mar del Plata (UNMP), she has published six books of poetry: Oficio de máscaras (1979), Para que el ojo cante (1983), En desmedida sombra (1987), Pie de guerra (1990), Puesta en escena (1993), and Taller de la memoria (1998); and several essays of literary criticism, among them: La palabra como destino (1987), Mujeres que escriben sobre mujeres (que escriben) (1997), and Poesía y experiencia del límite. Leer a Alejandra Pizarnik (1999). She is the editor of several anthologies of poetry, and has done dozens of translations of theater and essays.

Ana María Shúa was born in Buenos Aires in 1951. She studies in the Universidad de Buenos Aires, where she received her masters in arts and literature. and today is one of the most outstanding writers of Argentine literature. Her first novel, Soy Paciente, followed a long list of titles, among which stand out the novel Los Amores de Laurita (1984) and her books of short stories: La sueñera, Viajando se conoce gente y Casa de Geishas. Some of her works have been adapted for the screen and she also has been recognized as an author of children's literature (La fábrica del Terror y La puerta para salir del mundo, among other titles). She has published varios books related to Jewish traditions: Risas y emociones de la cocina judía , Cuentos judíos con fantasmas y demonios y El pueblo de los tontos. Her work is translated into several languages and in 1993 she received a Guggenheim grant to work on her novel El libro de los recuerdos. Her most recent works are: Temporada de Fantasmas y Botánica del caos.