Yania Suárez Calleyro

Born 1975 in Havana/Cuba.

Yania Suárez Calleyro is a writer and journalist currently living in Havana/Cuba. She graduated in philology from the University of Havana and has a Master’s degree from Western University in London/Canada (2009). Yania Suárez Calleyro has worked as a literature professor and collaborated with several magazines and newspapers.

As a result of her fictional work, she published a nationally awarded book Usted tiene derecho a hacer silencio (2002), as well as many short stories and essays in national and international magazines. In 2011 Liliane Hasson – the French translator of Reinaldo Arenas – included one of them in her personal anthology of young Cuban writers L’ Île errante.

For many years, Yania Suárez Calleyro has studied the work of Jorge Luis Borges in general and specifically in relation with Paul Valéry. The interpretation of Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote (Variaciones Borges, #32), could be considered as her main achievement.

After struggling with censorship in her country she started her career as a journalist for independent newspapers from the Cuban exile and from the »inxile«, like Diario de Cuba and 14ymedio. With them she collaborates until today. 

Yania Suárez Calleyro is a fellow of Akademie Schloss Solitude in the field of cultural journalism, a special program supported by the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung.