Javier Zamora

Writer, poet and activist, Zamora is part of a new generation of writers who have migrated to the United States and are blazing new trails in Latin American literature. With a style rich in caliche, the Salvadoran slang, his contribution to literature goes beyond narrative. Marked by the work of Salvadoran poet and activist Roque Dalton and Leticia Hernández-Linares, Zamora began his foray into writing with poetry, for which he has won prestigious fellowships at institutions such as Harvard and Stanford. In his first collection of poems Unaccompanied (Copper Canyon Press, 2017) he explores the realities of border politics, racism and economic injustice in the migrant experience. He is also the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship 2017 and a Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers 2016 award in recognition of his involvement with Undocupoets, a campaign advocating for the right of all writers, regardless of immigration status, to participate in literary prizes. In his debut memoir, Solito (published in Catalan by Periscopi and in Spanish by Random House, 2024), he portrays the trauma of childhood migration, offering a harrowing vision of the dangers that migrants are forced to suffer in the search for a new life. It has won several awards and has been recognized as one of the best books of 2023 by the New York Times and The Washington Post.