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Alicia Yánez Cossío (Quito, September 10, 1928^1 2 ) is a prominent Ecuadorian poet, novelist and journalist.

Alicia Yánez Cossio is one of the leading figures in Ecuadorian literature and in Latin America, and she is the first Ecuadorian to win the Premio Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, which she received in 1996.

In 2008 she received Ecuador's highest literary prize, the "Premio Eugenio Espejo" for her lifetime of work.

Biography

Daughter of Ing. and Clemencia. When she was six years old she entered the Sagrados Corazones School of Quito, where she stayed for a while due to academic failings because of her dislike of arithmetic. However, since she was young, Cossío demonstrated her great talent with words, from which he always desired to be a writer.³

Alicia Yánez Cossío would say later: “I had an extremely happy childhood, maybe a bit boyish, influenced by the first books I read: the works of Julio Verne and Tarzan’s feats. I never liked dolls.”.⁴

Her characters are frequently like the multitude represented by the community that fights to rescue woman’s elementary rights. Male chauvinism continues being a recurring theme in her writing. Irony, sarcasm and hyperbole make twisted masculine superiority evident, where she demarcates critiques on virginity or homosexuality, etc.

She has other unprecedented novels with similar characteristics. One of them is “El Cristo Feo” (“The Ugly Christ”).

In 1993 she became a widow. She is a woman whose fame has transcended international borders.

In 1996 she received the Premio Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz for the best latin american novel written by a woman.⁵

In 1998 she edited “Retratos cubanos” (“Cuban Portraits”) with 18 stories written between 1957 and 1961 from Cuba treating about the man’s battle to attain his freedom, but seeing as they were requisitioned when leaving the island they were re-written in 1996 mixing history with crude realism.

Today, she live enjoying being with her grandchildren and as a good grandma she adores them. She is the mother of the great writer Luis Miguel Campos Yánez, who fills her with a healthy satisfaction due to seeing his great gifts be transmitted.

Works

• Luciolas (poetry), (1949)
• Hacia el Quito de ayer (theater), (1951)
• De la sangre y el tiempo (poetry), (1964)
• Bruna, Soroche y los tíos (novel), (1971) (English trans. "Bruna and Her Sisters in the Sleeping City" by Kenneth J. A. Wishina, 1999)
• Plebeya mínima (poetry), (1974)
• El beso y otras fricciones (short stories), (1974)
• Yo vendo unos ojos negros (novel), (1979)
• Más allá de las islas (novel), (1980) (English trans. "Beyond the Islands" by Amalia Gladhart, 2011)
• La Cofradía del Mullo de la virgen Pipona (novel), (1985) (English trans. "The Potbellied Virgin" by Amalia Gladhart, 2006)
• La casa del sano placer (novel), (1989)
• El Cristo feo (novel), (1995)
• Aprendiendo a morir (novel), (1997)
• El viaje de la abuela (children's literature), (1997)
• Pocapena (children's literature), (1997)
• Relatos cubanos (stories), (1998)
• Sé que vienen a matarme (novel), (2001)
• Concierto de sombras (novel), (2001)
• Los triquitraques (children's literature), (2002)
• ¡No más! (children's literature), (2004)
• La canoa de la abuela (children's literature), (2006)
• Esclavos de Chatham (novel), (2006)
• Memorias de la Pivihuarmi Cuxirimay Ocllo (novel), (2008)
• Y amarle pude... (novel), (2012)

Awards

• Concurso Nacional de Novela -Fifty year anniversary of "El Universo" in Guayaquil, in 1971.
• Premio Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, in 1996.
• Premio Eugenio Espejo, in 2008.

The Alicia Yáñez Cossío Children's Literature Competition

In 2002 she was honored by the Government of the Province of Pichincha and its Provincial Patronage, by instituting a children’s literature contest that bears her name. This contest aims to stimulate all the districts of Pichincha’s provinces to contribute to the creation of spaces for expression, research and strengthening of their cultural identity.⁶