Juan Manuel Robles is a Peruvian writer and journalist. He is the author of Lima Freak. Vidas insólitas en una ciudad perturbada (Planeta, 2007, Seix Barral 2019), a classic work of Peruvian non-fiction; the novel Nuevos juguetes de la guerra fría (Seix Barral, 2015); the book of short stories No somos cazafantasmas (Seix Barral, 2018), shortlisted for the 2019 National Literature Prize; and Tragedia en Collins Avenue (Planeta, 2024). In 2017, he was selected for the Bogotá39 list as one of the best fiction writers under 40 in Latin America. His reports and stories have appeared in magazines such as Etiqueta Negra, Letras Libres, Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, Gatopardo and VICE, as well as in various Latin American anthologies. He has attended workshops run by Ryszard Kapuscinski and Tomás Eloy Martínez. In 2008, he was a finalist for the Gabriel García Márquez Foundation Award. He has taught writing workshops at the IDB in Washington, at the FILBA in Buenos Aires and at the FCE in Lima. He has also taught on the Creative Writing programme at New York University, the city where he currently resides.
Photo: © Caroline Mercado