Havana Noir

About the contributors

Alex Abella is an EMMY-nominated TV reporter and screenwriter. His experiences in the world of law and law enforcement inspired him to write a legal thriller, The Killing of the Saints, a New York Times Notable Book. Abella’s latest work, Shadow Enemies, is a nonfiction account of the plot by Adolf Hitler to unleash a wave of terror in the United States. He was born in Havana and now lives with his wife and children in the suburbs of Los Angeles.

Arturo Arango is a novelist, essayist, and screenwriter. He is the author of two short story collections and his novels include Una Lección de Anatomía, El Libro de la Realidad, and Muerte de Nadie. Since 1996 he has been managing editor of La Gaceta de Cuba, arguably the island’s most influential cultural magazine. He is also a screenwriting professor at the International Film School in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. He resides in Cojímar, a suburb of Havana.

Lea Aschkenas is the author of Es Cuba: Life and Love on an Illegal Island. She has written about travel, literature, and life at large for the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, and Salon.com. She is also included in the books The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2006, Travelers’ Tales Central America,Travelers’ Tales Cuba, The Unsavvy Traveler, Two in the Wild, and Beside the Sleeping Maiden: Poets of Marin. In 2000, she lived in Havana for more than ten months.

Moisés Asís is the author of fourteen books, including Cuban Miami, coauthored with Robert M. Levine, and many articles on scientific and social subjects, including Judaism. He won several national prizes in literature and science in Cuba, and he is a graduate from the University of Havana, the Open International University for Complementary Medicines, and Florida International University. He was born in Havana and lives in Miami.

Arnaldo Correa is one of the founding fathers of Cuban noir. A mining engineer by training, he is the author of two highly praised novels published in English by Akashic Books, Spy’s Fate and Cold Havana Ground. He lives in Havana.

Mabel Cuesta is the author of the books Confesiones On Line and Cuaderno de la Fiancée, both published in Cuba. Her stories and essays have appeared in magazines in Cuba, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Honduras, and the United States. She lives in New York.

Yohamna Depestre is the author of the prose collection D-21, and her writing is included in a number of anthologies published in Cuba and Puerto Rico. She is also the principal storyteller for Ommi-Zona Franca, a hip-hop performance group. She lives in Alamar, Cuba.

Michel Encinosa Fú received a degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Havana; he is a member of the Saíz Brothers Association and the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. His books include Sol Negro, Niños de Neón, Veredas, and Dioses de Neon. His work is included in anthologies published in Argentina, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, the United States, and Cuba. He has been honored for his writing in Cuba and abroad. He lives in Havana.

Mylene Fernández Pintado has a law degree from the University of Havana and has worked as a legal consultant and editorial coordinator at the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos. Her first book of stories, Anhedonia, won the 1986 David Prize in Cuba. Her first novel, Otras Plegarias Atendidas, received the Calvino Prize in 2002 and the Cuban Critics’ Award in 2003. She lives in Havana and Ticino, Switzerland.

Carolina García-Aguilera is the author of eight books, the first six of which are a series featuring Lupe Solano, a Cuban-American private investigator who lives and works in Miami. García-Aguilera, a private investigator herself, has been the recipient of many literary awards, including the Shamus and the Flamingo. She was born in Havana and lives in Miami.

Pablo Medina is the author of ten books of poetry and prose. His works include the new novel The Cigar Roller and the essay collection Exiled Memories: A Cuban Childhood. He is collaborating with Mark Statman on a new English version of García Lorca’s Poet in New York. Medina is on the core writing faculty of Eugene Lang College at The New School in New York City. He is currently a Visiting Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He was born in Havana.

Miguel Mejides is one of Cuba’s most internationally published authors. He penned the story collections Tiempo de Hombres (winner of the David Prize), El Jardín de las Flores Silvestres, Mi Prima Amada, and Rumba Palace, as well as the novel La Habitación Terrestre. His work has been translated into English, French, German, and Italian. He lives in Havana.

Achy Obejas is the award-winning author of Days of Awe, Memory Mambo, and We Came all the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? Her poems, stories, and essays have appeared in dozens of anthologies. A long-time contributor to the Chicago Tribune, she was part of the 2001 investigative team that earned a Pulitzer Prize for the series “Gateway to Gridlock.” Currently, she is the Sor Juana Writer in Residence at DePaul University in Chicago. She was born in Havana.

Oscar F. Ortíz went into exile at the age of eleven and has lived in South Florida ever since. His work includes the acclaimed Archivo Delta, a collection of novellas and novelettes, as well as El Elegido, El Negocio del Siglo, and El Santo Culto. He is currently working on a story collection featuring a Miami detective. He was born in Matanzas, Cuba, and now lives in Hialeah, Florida.

Leonardo Padura is one of Cuba’s best known crime fiction writers. He is a graduate of the University of Havana and has won literary awards in Cuba, France, Spain, and throughout Latin America. He has been the recipient of three Dashiell Hammett Awards from the International Association of Crime Writers. His books, which have been translated into more than a dozen languages, include Havana Blue, Havana Yellow, Havana Red, and Havana Black. He lives in Havana.

Ena Lucía Portela is the author of various novels, including Cien Botellas en una Pared, which won the 2002 Jaén Novel Prize in Spain and the Dos Océanos — Grinzane Cavour Critics Prize in France. Her work has been translated into more than seven languages. She was recently named to the Bogota 39, the Colombia International Book Fair’s list of the thirty-nine most important Latin American authors under the age of thirty-nine. She lives in Havana.

Mariela Varona Roque is an engineer at the Empresa de Construcción de la Industria Eléctrica in Holguín, Cuba. A David Prize winner, she is the author of two books of short stories, El Verano del Diablo and Cable a Tierra. Her work has been published in Cuba, Brazil, Spain, and Puerto Rico.

Yoss (José Miguel Sánchez Gómez) has a degree in biology from the University of Havana. He is the award-winning author of the story collections Timshel, W, and Precio Justo; and the novels Polvo Rojo and Morfeo Verdugo. His fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including the journals Eleftherothypia in Greece, Galaxie and Les Auteurs in France, and MAX in Italy. He lives in Havana.