Gloria Guardia

Gloria Guardia (born 1940) is a Panamanian novelist, essayist and journalist whose works have received important recognition in Latin America, Australia and Europe. She is a Fellow at the Panamanian Academy of Letters and Associate Fellow at the Spanish Royal Academy, the Colombian and the Nicaraguan Academy of Letters.

Guardia studied philosophy and literature at the Complutense University in Madrid and Spanish literature and Iberoamerica at Madrid's Instituto de Cultura Hispánica. In the United States, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree "cum laude" from Vassar College in 1962 and a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1968.That year she presented a dissertation for a Ph.D degree on Comparative Literature: Estudio sobre el pensamiento poético de Pablo Antonio Cuadra, which was revised for publication by Editorial Gredos, Madrid, in 1971.

Her literary works include novels, essays, short stories and critical studies. She has been awarded several national and international literary awards for her works, including one from the Society of Spanish and Iberoamerican Writers in 1961, the Ricardo Miró National Prize for an essay or novel in 1966, the Central American Novel Prize in 1976, two awards (essay and short story) from the magazine Lotería in 1971 and 1984, and the National Short Story Award from the city of Bogotá, Colombia, in 1996. In 2000, her novel Libertad en llamas was short listed for the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Novel Prize in Mexico. In 2007, the Rockefeller Foundation selected her to be one of their novelist-in-residence at The Bellagio Center, where she wrote her novel El jardín de las cenizas, third part of the trilogy Maramargo. In 2014 her novel En el corazón de la noche was launched in Buenos Aires and a second edition will be launched by Penguin Random House in the first semester of 2016 Her short stories have appeared in Spain, the U.S., France, England, Italy, Poland and Japan.

From 1975 to 1995, she worked as a syndicated columnist for several periodicals, including La Prensa, Panama America, and Cambio. She served as an ABC News correspondent in Panama and the consultant for Canal (channel) 5 (FETV) in Panama. In 1990 she collaborated on the twenty -first edition of the Dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy (DRAE) and the second edition of the Dictionary of Colombianismos for the Colombian Academy. She is the founder of the Panamanian chapter of the PEN-International and served as one of the seven executive council members of PEN from 1997 to 2002. Until 2004, she was a member of the Board of Trustees of the PEN International foundation. She currently serves as an International Vice President at PEN International, and president at the Iberian American PEN Foundation International.

• Honor Scholarship, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, 1958–61, 1962–63
• Medalla de oro de la Sociedad de Escritores Españoles e Iberoamericanos, Madrid, 1961.
• B.A. (Bachelor of Arts, "Cum Laude") Vassar College, 1963
• Honor Fellowsip, Organization of American States (OAS) to attend Graduate School, Columbia University, City of New York 1965-1968.
• National Book Award, Essay, "Ricardo Miró", Panamá, 1966.
• National Book Award, Novel, "RIcardo Miró, Panamá, 1966.
• Central American Book Award (EDUCA), San José, 1977.
• Fellow, Academia Panameña de la Lengua, Panamá, 1985.
• Associate Fellow, Spanish Royal Academy, Madrid, 1989.
• National Short Story Award, Ciudad de Bogotá", Colombia, Colombia, 1997.
• Associate Fellow, Colombian Academy of Letters, Bogota, 1997.
• Keys of The City of Miami, EE.UU, 1997.
• Nicaragua's Most Distinguished Citizen, Orden Rubén Darío, Nicargua, 2000.
• International Who's Who's of Women, 2002
• Front Runner Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's Book Award, Feria Internacional del Libro (FIL), de Guadalajara, México,1999.
• List of Vassar College People, Famous Alumni, Writers, 2003
• International Vice President, PEN International, London, 2006.
• Associate Fellow, Nicaragua's Academy of Letters, Managua, Nicaragua, 2007.
• Fellow, Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio Center, 2007.
• National Book Award (Essay), (CENAL), Venezuela, 2007.
• Continental Who's Who's, 2014.
• Bristol Who's Who, 2015.
• Columbia University's Who's Who of Distinguished Alumni, 2015.

Guardia is the daughter of the Panamanian Consulting Engineer Carlos A. Guardia, descendant of Sebastian de la Guardia (c. 1640), one of Panamanian Founding Fathers, and co-founder of AIDIS( Asociación Interamericana de Ingeniería Sanitaria y Ambiental) ( Inter-American Association of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering).Her mother, Olga Zaledón de Guardia, a Nicaraguan citizen, was the youngest daughter of her country's National Hero, Benjamin Zeledón. Guardia lives with her husband of 48 years, Ricardo Alfaro, grandson of former Panamanian Presidents, Ricardo J. Alfaro and Alcibiades Arosemensa). They have a daughter, Cristina Alfaro Carlis (Mrs. E. Scott Carlis) a scientist at Amgen, a Human therapeutics company in the biotechnology industry. Guardia and Alfaro have and two grandchildren: Summer Elizabeth and Dylan Cooper. They spend their time between Bogotá, Panama and Los Angeles.