Guadalupe Duenas

Guadalupe Dueñas was a 20th-century Mexican short story writer and essayist. She was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, in 1910, as the first-born daughter of a large family. She received her primary education at the Teresian Schools in Mexico City and Morelia, and later studied literature with Emma Godoy and at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She began writing at an early age, but did not publish her first book until 1960, when she was 50 years old. Her stories, influenced by Franz Kafka and Juan Rulfo, explore themes such as loneliness, madness, death, and the supernatural. She is considered one of the most original and innovative voices of Mexican literature, and has been praised by critics and fellow writers such as Carlos Fuentes, Elena Poniatowska, and Octavio Paz. She received several awards and honors for her work, such as the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize, the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Medal, and the National Prize for Arts and Sciences. She died in Mexico City in 2002, at the age of 91.