Pilar Quintana is a Colombian writer, screenwriter and publicist. She has published novels and short stories and has won awards including the La Mar Literature Award. Her work has been included in international anthologies and she was named as one of the 39 most interesting Latin American writers aged under 39 by the Hay Festival. In 2011, Quintana represented Colombia on Iowa University’s International Writing Program. Her novel, Coleccionistas de polvos raros won an award given by the La Mar de Músicas festival in Cartagena, Spain. Eight years later La perra won the 4th Biblioteca Award for Colombian Fiction and a PEN Translates Award and was shortlisted for the National Novel Prize of Colombia and the National Book Award in the United States in the translated literature category. Her latest novel, Los Abismos, has been awarded the 2021 Alfaguara Novel Prize.
Photo: Carlos Zárrate