“Exploring the Works of Contemporary Ecuadorian Female Writers: Monica Ojeda and Natalia Garcia Freire”

At the beginning of the 1970s, women gradually gained more and more prominence in the national literary scene, until then largely dominated by men with illustrious exceptions such as the writer from Quito, Alicia Yánez Cossío. Clara Medina, cultural manager of the Anthropological and Contemporary Art Museum (MAAC), highlights some representative national writers of Ecuadorian literature of the 21st century in the framework of the activities of the museum’s library reading club, whose new reading cycle focuses on storytellers.

Monica Ojeda

“The revelation of all these authors is Mónica Ojeda. Of the authors of the last generations, she is the one who has achieved the greatest notoriety and quality in her narrative. She has two factors that make her very interesting: she handles theory and creativity, she is theoretical and creative, ”says Medina about the writer and adds that she handles herself in different genres, which is a testament to her” versatility ”.

The author, born in Guayaquil in 1988, published her first novel, called Silva disfigurement, in 2015. The work was the recipient of the Alba Narrativa Prize, delivered at the Cuban International Book Fair. She consequently posted By doing wrong y Jawworks in which he explored themes such as pleasure, myths around the family, pain, fear and various taboos, such as pornography and incest.

The intense narrative of Mónica Ojeda returns in her first book of short stories ‘Las voladoras’

Punctually, By doing wrong deals with the construction of a child pornography videogame in the deep weba series of internet sites accessible only with special means and where illegal activities often take place, while Jaw tells the story of two upper-class friends from Guayaquil who find themselves involved in a series of perverse rites that lead to one of the girls being kidnapped by one of her teachers.

By doing wrong y Jawboth published by Editorial Candaya, are available at Mr. Books at a price of $29.50 and $35, respectively.

Natalia Garcia Freire

With his first novel, our dead skinpublished in 2019, the writer from Cuenca Natalia García Freire left an important mark for being her first novel: it was selected as one of the best works of the year by the American newspaper The New York Timesand was reviewed by Marta Sanz, Spanish writer, for the newspaper The country.

Universe of books: Ecuadorian works presented this week in commemoration of Book Day

“Our dead skin demonstrates outstanding maturity as a sensitive and applied writer and reader. A reader to whom what she has read has grown skin. And she is not exactly dead, ”wrote Sanz.

The novel is about a young man’s return to his family’s old home, in whose garden his father is now buried, as he witnesses the crumbling of his family and the physical foundations of his home.

“I am completely in tune with the lack of spirituality and with the anti-literature that characterizes this project, on the other hand so deeply literary, and I am interested in the possible redefinition of the language with which it works”, adds the Spanish author in the review.

Since then he released his second novel, You brought the wind with youpublished in 2022. Both are available at the Spanish Bookstore, at a cost of $15.50 and $14.90 respectively. (E)