About Bogotá Writers
Bogotá Writers began meeting, reading and writing together in a bookshop in Bogotá in 2011. Back then, we had no agreed or written manifesto, and nor do we now, more than ten years later, but we have developed a productive and supportive space where members have evolved into a group of critical friends—who listen, understand and suggest improvements to each other’s writing.
The first collection that we published together—Authors from Authors—was a mixed bag of themes and genres, representing the mixed bag of authors from different countries and backgrounds, all resident in Bogotá. The second collection, Voices of Bogotá, sought to celebrate the city that we shared and loved, at least some of the time.
The gestation period of this third collection has not only coincided with a global pandemic, it has also, despite the pandemic’s restrictions, been a time of movement for many of the Bogotá Writers themselves. The result is that, for now, Bogotá Writers continues as an on-line collective, with members connecting from different continents and time zones.
We may now be in many separate spaces, but we continue to enjoy a shared passion for writing, which we hope can be seen in You Are Someone Else Now.
Clara Irene Reyes
Clara Irene Reyes looks more diverse on paper than she is in reality. With a PhD in Latin American and Spanish Literatures and Cultures, as well as degrees in Psychology and Hotel Management, she seems to have her fingers in many pies; whereas in actual fact her passion for books, food and people has led her into the teaching profession. She loves her students and her job, but most of all she loves to spend her time surrounded by good conversation, a glass of red wine, her books, her plants, her music and her family. She loves to travel, to go swimming and to contemplate a beautiful sunset in the mountains, preferably from a hammock. Dr. Reyes has published essays and stories in Authors from Authors: A Short Story Collection, Was Gabo an Irishman?, Voices of Bogotá and Cocktails with Miss Austen.
Victoria Kellaway
Victoria is a freelance writer, translator and intercultural communications lecturer originally from the south of England. She started out as a news reporter for newspapers in London, Lincolnshire and Liverpool before moving to Bogotá in 2010. Victoria co-authored two editions of the satirical survival guide Colombia: a comedy of errors (a bestseller in Colombia), and co-edited the story collections Was Gabo an Irishman? and Alone Together: Tales of Sisterhood and Solitude in Latin America. Her short fiction has been published in France, India and the United States.
Vincent Pollard
Vincent Pollard is a British-Canadian writer and mixologist who has worked in some of Toronto’s best cocktail bars and written about electronic music and bartending for several national Canadian publications including Thump (Vice), Musicworks, Exclaim! and Bartender Atlas. In 2020, he co-wrote the cocktail book Behind Bars: High-Class Cocktails for Low-Life Gangsters (Prestel/Random House), which paired movie mobsters with classic and custom cocktails. Vincent currently lives in Cartagena, Colombia, where he is distilling Selva Gin, Colombia’s first London Dry gin. His contributions to this anthology mark his first published works of fiction.
Ana Carolina Pereira
Carolina (Ana goes by her middle name) is a founding member of Bogotá Writers. Despite several unsuccessful attempts to migrate, she still lives and thrives in Bogotá, her city of birth … it must be the pull of those Andes Mountains. Since a tender age, Carolina has been interested in, and learned about, pretty much every subject under the sun. She has also held a wide variety of jobs throughout her working life, and currently offers an assortment of services that fall under the umbrella of “Content Developer and Consultant.” During The Pandemic, Carolina temporarily quit her not social-distancing-friendly hobbies and discovered the joys of home baking. She also upped her flâneur game and now knows by heart the gardens, houses, parks and other contemplative attractions in her vicinity. Her fiction has been published by After Dinner Conversation, Short Édition, Letralia and El Malpensante. She reads for Short Édition and Reedsy.
Juan Manuel Rodríguez B.
Juanma is forever letting his brain and heart swim in literature. While studying industrial engineering, writing fell like a bomb on his head and he hasn’t stopped writing since. He contributed an essay to the non-fiction anthologyWas Gabo an Irishman?, writes for El Clavo magazine and the Bogotá chapter of Creative Mornings. He works as a storyteller and copywriter, helping people and companies improve their businesses by telling engaging stories. He likes to play the drums and draw, and regards himself as an experienced cappuccino taster. He also enjoys a silly but sincere joke and eating sushi.
Tony Cleaver
Originally from London, Tony Cleaver has been a journalist, hippy, teacher, road sweeper, mountain guide, university lecturer and writer. He has lived and worked in the UK, Singapore, Chile, the Netherlands and Colombia–all of which have inspired him to write. Tony has written two texts on economics (Routledge), four novels–El Mono (The Book Guild Ltd.), Welcome to Camelot and Greyhound George (John Hunt Publishing and Roundfire Books (JHP), Greyhound George to the Rescue (Austin Macauley) and a collection of short stories, Frogs, Cats and Pyramids (JHP). Tony is married to a Colombian and alternates between living in Bogotá and Durham, UK.
Ángela Álvarez Vélez
Ángela Álvarez Vélez was born in the city of Pereira, Colombia. After spending much of her childhood in the US, her family returned to Colombia, where she pursued a career in journalism. Her work has been included in several Colombian newspapers and magazines such as Aló, Don Juan and El Malpensante, and her longtime column Mundo Moderno was included in the humoristic collection Antología de Notas Ligeras, edited by Daniel Samper Pizano and Maryluz Restrepo. Her first story published in English, Jolly Fats Dies Tonight, was included in the groundbreaking anthology Unbound: Stories of Transformation, Love, and Monsters (Five Points Press, 2021).
Delaney Turner
Delaney has lived in many places around the world but feels most at home in his head. He is still not comfortable referring to himself as a writer. He drinks too much coffee. If given a choice, he would prefer to drive, thank you. When driving on twisting roads he does his own commentary in a poor approximation of the late great Murray Walker. Delaney prefers rhetorical devices to rigid structures. He thinks “English grammar” is a contradiction in terms. He enjoys walking the two rescue dogs he adopted while living in Bogotá with his beautiful and incredibly understanding wife. He lives in New York.
Daniela Restrepo Ortiz
Daniela was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, but has traveled the world for several years, moving between Italy, Portugal and France. As a young amateur writer she explores poetry and prose to tell stories of love and heartbreak. More recently, she has used her writing to describe the legacy that war has left in Colombia’s post-conflict era. A salsa dancer herself, Daniela is passionate about music and body movement as creative expressions. When not writing, she can be found solving systemic and complex issues as a designer who has worked at the intersection of social impact and community-led research for the past decade. Daniela is also a polyglot and a vegan, and a faithful believer in humour and laughter as drivers of change.
Peter Dale
After graduating in modern languages from St. Peter’s College, Oxford, Peter’s career has involved advertising, marketing and education in London, the north-east of England, Bogotá and Mexico City. All these places have inspired his writing, including journalism, short stories and short novels. He is a founder member of Bogotá Writers and participated in the group’s first two collections. The experiences of Covid-19 in Bogotá provoked him to write a daily account of his life and observations during lockdown. The first fifty two days are collected as Quarantine Chronicles and the later, more sporadic, entries form Chronicles from Limboland, written in Colombia and the UK. In 2020, Peter completed an MA in Creative Writing and Wellbeing (Distinction) from Teesside University where, coincidentally, he is now employed. He is married to Constanza and has three grown-up children in the UK, Denmark and Spain.
Francisco Fidel Becerra Mesa
A Bogotano with Paisa and Costeño blood who creates and narrates stories about Fantasy, Horror and Magical Realism. Husband, father of twins, financial manager by career choice, musical cultist, tabletop roleplayer, boardgamer, book hoarder and an absolute professional Geek. Francisco has been with Bogotá Writers since 2011.
Ben Angel
Ben’s only experience with Colombia took place between watching The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on a flight out of Lima and gazing out over the lights of Maracaibo on the plane to Madrid. Still, in the two years just before, during which he stayed in Chile, Ben gained a strong appreciation for the creativity and intellectual reputation of Colombians, so much so that when given the chance to interact with this writing group, he jumped at the chance. Ben’s writing was first published in newspapers and entertainment publications found in Tacoma and Detroit (USA), and Kyiv (Ukraine). During his civil engineering days, his best-read work was probably the Environmental Description section of the AIOC Chirag Oil Project Environmental and Socio-Economic Impact Assessment produced for BP, but he eventually returned to journalism as a section editor for I Love Chile, and began editing essays for Kazakh university applicants to put bread on the table. Currently, from his home in Wroclaw, Poland, Ben serves as a consul for Internations’ Global Writing & Storytelling Group, and his most recent creative project is a screenplay about 19th century New Mexico gangster Vicente Silva, as seen through the eyes of his grandfather’s grandfather, with whom existed an apparent compadrazgo relationship. He hopes to return to Colombia and someday meet in person all the cool people he’s been interacting with on Zoom.