Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro

Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro (born October 29, 1970) is a Puerto Rican novelist, short story writer and essayist.

Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro was born in Guaynabo. She began writing at an early age in school newsletters and newspapers and won drawing and essay competitions at the Colegio San Vicente Ferrer in Cataño. In 1989 she won the intra-university competition of the Bayamón Central University with the story "Vimbi Botella." In 1990 she directed a play entitled ¿A dónde va el amor? (Where Does Love Go?) based on her own script, which was staged in Barrio Amelia, a poor neighborhood in Guaynabo where the author was raised. In 2004, she published her first book of stories Origami de letras (Letter Origami) and the following year published her first novel Los documentados (The Documented) that depicts the migration conditions in the Caribbean, specifically from Hispaniola to Puerto Rico. This novel won the PEN Club Prize for 2006. In 2007 she published a new book of short stories, Ojos de Luna (Moon Eyes) in which she explores marginality from various points of view including eviction, solidarity, and spiritual barriers. This book was selected by El Nuevo Día as one of the best in 2007. That same year she was chosen as one of the most important Latin American writers under 39 years of age as part of Bogotá39, convened by UNESCO, the Hay Festival, and the Ministry of Culture in Bogotá. She was the only representative from Puerto Rico.

Arroyo Pizarro teaches creative writing workshops in San Juan. She has been the recipient of several literary awards, national and internationally: Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Spain and Puerto Rico. Her short story collection Ojos de Luna was awarded the National Literature Prize, Premio Nacional del Instituto de Literatura de Puerto Rico 2008. She regularly publishes articles and reviews in newspapers such as El Nuevo Día, El Vocero, Claridad and La Expresión. She belongs to the core team running the literary website CiudadSeva.com.

Arroyo Pizarro frequently writes about LGBT issues in her work. She often uses her blog Boreales to discuss Puerto Rican, Caribbean, and other themes.

Arroyo Pizarro has been in a relationship with her partner for many years in which she helps raise their daughter.

Arroyo Pizarro has been published in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Panama, Guatemala, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Denmark, Hungary, and France. Her work has been traduced to English, Italian, French, and Hungarian.

Books

• 2003 Origami de letras, 2003, Publicaciones Puertorriqueñas, Puerto Rico.
• 2005 Los documentados, 2005, Editorial Situm, Puerto Rico.
• 2007 Ojos de luna, 2007, Terranova Editores, Puerto Rico.
• 2009 Historias para morderte los labios
• 2010 Cachaperismos: poesía y narrativa lesboerótica (lesbian erotic short stories and poems selection from lesbian authors)
• 2010 Caparazones (novel)
• 2010 Medialengua: moitié langue, petits poèmes et des histoires
• 2013 Violeta, (novel)

Short stories

• "Las ballenas grises" (Primer Premio Certamen Pepe Fuera de Borda de Argentina 2006)
• "El coleccionista de latidos" (Primer Premio Certamen Pepe Fuera de Borda de Argentina 2005)
• "Orión", from Origami de letras
• "Virginia", from Origami de letras
• "Manos Dibujando", Revista Antropofagia, Argentina 2008
• "Fahrenheit" (story in Derivas.net)
• "Rapiña", (story in Letralia.com)
• "Andanas" (story in Sinister Wisdom's 97th Publication; Summer 2015)

Poems

• Selected poems, Antología Mujer Rota, Lamujerrota.blogspot.com

• Castro and Cabral, Nívea and Geny (2015). Sinister Wisdom: Out Latina Lesbians. Berkeley, CA: Sinister Wisdom. p. 204. ISBN 978-1-938334-19-1. 

• Premio Nacional del Instituto de Literatura Puerto-rriqueña (2008)
• Premio del Instituto de Cultura de Puerto Rico (2012)
• Her book Ojos de Luna was selected as book of the year in 2007 by the magazine El Nuevo Día

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