Zoé Valdés

Zoé Valdés

Zoé Valdés (Havana, 1959), a writer of poetry, novels and film scripts, entered the Faculty of Philology at the University of Havana, and between 1984 and 1988 she was part of the Cuban Delegation to UNESCO in Paris. After she returned, she began to earn a living as a screenwriter and later was deputy director of Cine Cubano magazine. In 1995, invited to a conference on José Martí in Paris, she requested political asylum. "Blue Blood" was her first novel, a genre that she has cultivated even more, although without abandoning poetry; she has also edited children's literature. Among her awards, the Fernando Lara de Novela for "Lobas de mar" and the Azorín for "The woman who cries" stand out. She has been a finalist three times for the Médicis Abroad in France, and has also been a finalist for the Planeta Award with "I gave you a whole life". She was editor-in-chief of the art magazine ARS Magazine (USA) and collaborates in publications such as El País, El Mundo, El Semanal, Qué leer, Elle, Vogue, Le Monde, Libération, Le Nouvel Observateur or El Universal de Caracas. . She is a jury member of prestigious literary competitions, in addition to writing screenplays she has co-directed a short film — "Caricias de Oshún" — and has been a member of the Grand Jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Her work has been translated into many languages.