Laidi Fernández de Juan

Laidi Fernández de Juan was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1961. A writer and doctor, she has worked many years in Cuban medical missions, especially in Africa. She began her literary career in 1994 with a collection of short stories, Dolly y otros cuentos africanos (Letras Cubanas, 1994, Cuba). She writes a regular column, called Cosas del caos in the literary magazine Cuba Contemporánea. She also writes regularly for the online magazine La Jiribilla and runs a meeting space at the Cultural Centre Dulce Maria Loynaz called ‘Wednesdays of Smiles’. She has published ten books, among them: Oh Vida (Editorial Unión, 1998, Cuba), which was awarded the Premio Nacional de Cuentos ‘Luis Felipe Rodríguez’; La hija de Darío (Letras Cubanas, 2005, Cuba); Bésame mucho (2007, Ediciones Banda Oriental, Montevideo, Uruguay); Universo y la lista (2013, Ediciones Matanzas, Cuba); Jugada en G (Unión, 2013, Cuba); and Será siempre (2014, Ediciones Holguin, Cuba), her first collection of ‘mini short stories’.