Laura Restrepo

Laura Restrepo is a Colombian writer. She was born in Bogotá in 1950. She graduated from the University of the Andes with a degree in Philosophy and Literature and afterwards completed postgraduate work in Political science.

In the 1960s Restrepo gave up her teaching post at the National University to focus on left wing politics, and spent time in Spain and Argentina where she was part of the underground resistance.

In 1983, she served as a member of the commission that neogiated for peace with the guerrilla movement M-19. Her first book, Historia de un entusiasmo (1986), relates the inability of the government and rebels to come to terms. This led to her self-imposed exile to Spain and Mexico until 1989 when the M-19 agreed to disarm. She treats themes of exile in her first novel, Isla de pasión, which is based on historical events at Clipperton Island.

Her third novel Dulce compañía (translated into English as The Angel of Galilea) won the Mexican Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize

In 2004 she was named the director of the Institute of Culture and Tourism in Bogotá, but resigned soon afterwards after receiving the Alfaguara Prize for her novel Delirium.

Works

• Story of a Fascination (1986)
• Isle of Passion (1989)
• Las vacas comen espaguetis (1989) (for children)
• Leopard in the Sun (1993)
• The Angel of Galilea (1995)
• The Dark Bride (1999)
• A Tale of the Dispossessed (2001)
• Olor a rosas invisibles (2002)
• Delirium (2004)

As a co-author

• Operación Príncipe (1988)
• En qué momento se jodió Medellín (1991)
• Del amor y del fuego (1991)
• Otros niños (1993)

External links

• 2000 Interview in lateral (in Spanish)
• 2001 Interview in BOMB Magazine
• 2002 Interview on NOW with Bill Moyers