Mónica Ojeda

Mónica Ojeda Franco (born 17 May 1988) is an Ecuadorian writer. A native of Guayaquil, she obtained her bachelor's degree from the Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil, followed by a master's degree from the Universidad Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona. She is currently working on her doctorate in Madrid. Ojeda has published in several genres, including poetry, novels, and short stories. In 2017, she was named as one of the Bogotá39, a selection of the best young writers in Latin America.^[1] The other 38 included Samanta Schweblin, the Brazilian Mariana Torres and the Mexican Gabriela Jauregui, Liliana Colanzi from Bolivia and Argentinians María José Caro and Lola Copacabana.^[2][3]

In January 2018, she published the novel Mandibula, which tells the story of two teenage girls obsessed with horror stories and creepypastas, one of whom is kidnapped by her literature teacher.^[4] The book was described as "one of the novels of the season" by the Spanish newspaper El País,^[5] which ranked it 12th in its list of the 50 best books of 2018.^[6] The novel was also selected as one of the ten finalists for the Mario Vargas Llosa Biennial Novel Prize in its 2018 edition.^[7]

In 2020 she was selected as one of the five finalists for the sixth edition of the Ribera del Duero Short Story Award with her book of short stories Las voladoras,^[8] in which she explores through horror themes such as gender violence, abortion, sexuality and religion in a style she defined as "Andean Gothic".^[9]