Gioconda Belli

Gioconda Belli

• Full name: Gioconda Belli Pereira
• Date of birth: December 9, 1948
• Place of birth: Managua, Nicaragua
• Occupation: Poet, novelist, essayist, activist
• Nationality: Nicaraguan
• Education: University of California, Berkeley (BA)
• Awards: Casa de las Américas Prize (1972), Neustadt International Prize for Literature (1995), PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry (2009)

Biography

Gioconda Belli is a Nicaraguan poet, novelist, essayist, and activist. She is best known for her novel The Inhabited Woman, which won the Casa de las Américas Prize in 1972. Belli has also written several other novels, including By the Lake of Dreams (1997) and The Country Under My Skin (2001). Her poetry has been translated into more than 20 languages.

Belli was born in Managua, Nicaragua, in 1948. She studied journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and then returned to Nicaragua to work as a journalist and political activist. In the 1970s, she was a member of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), a revolutionary movement that overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in 1979. Belli served as a government official in the Sandinista government, but she later became disillusioned with the FSLN and left the party in 1994.

Belli's writing is often political and feminist. She has written about the Nicaraguan revolution, the United States' intervention in Nicaragua, and the experiences of women in Nicaragua. Her work has been praised for its beauty, its honesty, and its insights into the human condition.

Awards and honors

• Casa de las Américas Prize (1972)
• Neustadt International Prize for Literature (1995)
• PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry (2009)
• Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2009)
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Connecticut (2010)

Selected works

• Novels
  • The Inhabited Woman (1972)
  • By the Lake of Dreams (1997)
  • The Country Under My Skin (2001)
  • In the Time of the Butterflies (2004)
  • The Infinitive of Spring (2008)
• Poetry
  • Sobre la grama (1972)
  • Línea de fuego (1978)
  • De la costilla de Eva (1982)
  • Truenos y arco iris (1988)
  • The Dolphins' Song (1992)
  • Apogeo (1997)
  • El ojo de la mujer (2000)
  • Fuego y agua (2005)
• Essays
  • El país bajo mi piel (1991)
  • El infinito en la palma de la mano (1998)
  • Waslala: memorias de una mujer combatiente (1999)