Produced in Austin, Texas, and founded in 2018, Hablemos, escritoras is the largest encyclopedia and voice repository in the world specializing in female writers, translators, and critics in Spanish, as well as the publishing houses and magazines that publish them. Our website fosters interactive discovery through book reviews, indices, search tags, and a catalog with thousands of titles. Every week we release a new episode on the site and on major podcast platforms. On our blog, we post mini-reviews and book recommendations, along with posts about literature, culture, and society.
Adriana Pacheco Roldan (Puebla, 1963 / U.S. citizen by naturalization) holds a Ph.D. in Iberian and Latin American Languages and Cultures from the University of Texas at Austin (2015). She is a researcher, reading and education advocate, and an affiliated scholar at LLILAS, University of Texas at Austin. She is the founder of the Contemporary Mexican Writers Project, the podcast and encyclopedia Hablemos Escritoras, and Shop Escritoras Books. She has been a featured author at the Texas Book Festival and currently serves on its Board of Directors.
Andrea Macías Jiménez (Puebla, Mexico, 1991) has a degree in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin (2014) and professional experience in editorial photography and web design. She lives in Austin, TX where she works in photography and social media development for the film and television industry. Andrea is our graphic designer and social media manager.
Brenda Ortiz Anaya (Puebla, Mexico, 1995) has a degree in Graphic Design from Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP). She has worked as a freenlance designer focused on corporate identity, banners, and catalogs for digital media. She has also been an administrative assistant for several companies.
Christian Josephi (Puebla, Mexico, 1987) has a degree in Business Administration and Tourism from Staffordshire University, England. He is a musician and his experience in the musical field has led him to work with audio recording and editing. Christian is our audio editor.
Liliana Valenzuela (CDMX, 1960) is a poet and acclaimed translator. Some of her work includes Codex of Love: Bendita ternura and Codex of Journeys: Bendito camino. Her work has appeared in the Edinburgh Review, Indiana Review, Tigertail, and others. She has translated the works of such writers as Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, Denise Chávez and others. Valenzuela is a member of Canto Mundo and Macondo Writers Workshop. She has a B.A. and Ma. in Anthropology from the University of Texas, Austin.
Anjanette Delgado (Santurce, 1967) is winner of an Emmy for human interest journalism, she authored the novels: La píldora del mal amor (Atria, 2008) and La clarividente de la Calle Ocho (Penguin Random House, 2014). Her work has been featured in the New York Times (Modern Love; Opinion), NPR, Kenyon Review and Prairie Schooner. She edited the anthology Home in Florida: Latinx Writers and the Literature of Uprootedness (U Florida Press, 2021), Gold Medal for collective fiction at the Latino International Book Awards 2022.
Francesca Dennstedt, Ph.D. (Tijuana, 1988) obtained her PhD in Hispanic Studies from Washington University in St. Louis, where she also completed a certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Currently, she works as a professor and researcher in the Department of Hispanic Studies at the University of Kentucky. Her main research areas are 20th century and contemporary Mexican literature, and its relationship to gender and sexuality studies, border studies, and medical humanities.
Rose Mary Salum (Mexico, 1964) is a writer and the founder of Literal Publishing. She is the author of the titles Donde el rio se toca, Tres semillas de granada, Una de ellas, El agua que mece el silencio y Delta de las arenas, cuentos árabes, cuentos judíos, among others. Her books have been translated into English, Italian, Bulgarian and Portuguese. She is also a collaborator of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language.
Teresa López-Pellisa (Alcañiz, Spain. 1979) is a professor, director of the Future Studies Laboratory, and deputy director of the University Institute for Research in Latin American Studies (IELAT) at the University of Alcalá (Madrid, Spain). She is a specialist in science fiction and gender studies. Among her publications, the most notable are Historia de la ciencia ficción latinoamericana vol. 1 y vol. 2, Historia de la ciencia ficción en la cultura española, Patologías de la realidad virtual. Cibercultura y Ciencia Ficción, Ciberfeminismo: De Venus Matrix a Laboria Cubonik.
Julia Santibáñez (Mexico) holds a master’s degree in Comparative Literature from UNAM. She is the author of 11 books, including Eros una vez, winner of the Mario Benedetti International Poetry Prize, as well as the chronicle El lado B de la cultura. Her works have been published in Switzerland, Australia, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay, and Colombia, among others. Since 2020, she has written a column for the newspaper La Razón. She is also the head of the Literature and Reading Promotion Department at UNAM.
Valeria Rey de Castro Luna (Lima, 1987) holds a Ph.D. in Iberian and Latin American Languages and Cultures from the University of Texas at Austin (2018). She is a literature professor and coordinator of elementary courses in this discipline at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.
Gabriela Polit (Quito) is a critic, professor, and writer, with a degree in Philosophy, a master's in Political Science, and later a Ph.D. in Latin American Literature from New York University. She was a student of critics Jean Franco and Sylvia Molloy and has an abundant body of critical work. Her Amsterdam Avenue won the Literal Publishing and Rice Humanities award in 2017. Her latest novel is Los libros de otros.
Gisela Kozak-Rovero (Caracas, 1963) was a university professor for 25 years at the Central University of Venezuela, where she studied Literature and later completed a Master's and a Ph.D. in Literature at Simón Bolívar University. She is a contributor to Letras Libres, Literal Magazine, and others. She is the author of Literatura asediada: revoluciones políticas, culturales y sociales (EBUC, 2012) and Ni tan chéveres ni tan iguales (Punto Cero, 2014), En rojo (Alfa, 2011) and Todas las lunas (Equinoccio, 2011; Sudaquia, 2013).
Lorena Amaro (Santiago, 1971) is an academic and researcher. She focuses on topics such as memory, autobiography, autofiction, feminism, and the literature of Chilean women writers. She is a professor and director of the Institute of Aesthetics at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and a member of the Group of Studies in Literature and Linguistics. Some of her books are La pose autobiográfica. Ensayos sobre narrativa chilena (Ediciones Universidad Alberto Hurtado, 2019) and El espejo del gólem. De la biografía a la fábula biográfica hispanoamericana (Editorial USACH, 2022).
Martha Bátiz (Mexico City, 1971) holds a Ph.D. in Latin American literature from the University of Toronto and is a faculty member at Glendon College, where she founded the Spanish creative writing program. She was the first Mexican to receive an honorable mention in the Miguel de Unamuno International Short Story Award. Has been recognized as one of the most successful Mexicans and one of the most influential Latinas in Canada. Her latest book is No Stars in the Sky (2022)
Mónica Velásquez holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic Literature from El Colegio de México and is currently a professor in the Literature Program at UMSA. She published in poetry El viento de los náufragos (2005), Hija de Medea (2008 National Poetry Award Yolanda Bedregal), La sed donde bebes (2011) and Abdicar de lucidez (2016); in literary critic Demoniaco afán (Plural-Pittsburgh 2010). Her last two books are Un presente abierto las 24 horas (Mantis Narrativa, 2023) and Animal Print (Plural, 2025).
Alice Banks is a literary translator from Spanish and French based in Madrid. Alice’s latest translation of Elizabeth Duval’s novel Madrid será la tumba, was published in Fall 2023. When she is not translating, Alice also works as a publisher at Fum d’Estampa Press and an Editorial Assistant for The European Literature Network, where she writes the monthly column, ‘La Española’. More recently with the European Literature Network, she worked as Assistant Editor on The Spanish Riveter magazine, to which she also contributed several translations and articles.
Mitana B Josephi (Sofia, Bulgaria, 1987) has a BA (bachelor of arts) in interior desgin and studied arts including toy design in Sofia,Bulgaria, classical art and stenography in Rome,Italy, interior desgin in Barcelona Spain and graphic desgin and fine arts in Puebla, Mexico. She lives in Porto, Portugal and if part of the Atelier de Arte Realista do Porto.
