Carmen Naranjo is one of the most important literary figures in Costa Rica today. She has published seven volumes of poetry, seven novels, four books of short stories, and four books of essays. A creative and visionary writer, Naranjo incorporates a variety of innovative techniques in her works of fiction, several of which have won literary awards throughout Central America. She is read widely in Latin America but has become known only recently in the United States, mostly through translations of her short stories.

Carmen Naranjo Coto was born on 30 January 1930 in Cartago, the original capital of Costa Rica, some twenty kilometers from San José. Her father, Sebastián Naranjo Prida, was from Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Her mother, Caridad Coto Troyo, was from a family of Sephardic origin who immigrated to Costa Rica in the sixteenth century. Her father had a...