Paula Carrasco

I Hear My Own Silence

Paula Carrasco (Chile, 1967) is a writer and psychologist. She has published novels, essays, and children’s books, and has also worked as an editor and participated in literary and visual curatorial projects. She was a member of the Children’s and Young Adult Book Selection Committee of DIBAM, Chile.

She spent her childhood and adolescence in Chile, the United States, and Switzerland. She later completed undergraduate and graduate studies in linguistics and clinical psychology in both the United States and Chile.

She has co-edited literary criticism and literature publications in both countries, and has led the curation and production of poetry visual exhibitions in Barcelona and Santiago de Chile. Her articles on psychology, creativity, and literature have been published in specialized journals in the United States, Mexico, and Chile.

In 2003, Alfaguara Infantil published her children’s novel Barcos que vuelan. In 2012, Fondo de Cultura Económica released her first adult novel, Volver. Primero estaba el mar, which was critically acclaimed in Chile, Mexico, Argentina, and Spain. In 2014, she published Un golpe de agua (FCE), also very well received across Latin America and Spain. In 2021, she was a finalist for the Nadal Novel Prize, one of the most prestigious literary awards in Ibero-American fiction, with her novel Algo temporal, which was published in 2023 and widely praised by literary critics. In 2026 Alfaguara will publish his new novel Sangre Negra.


His work has been published in Norwegian, Swedish and Portuguese.

Works

  • Diccionario bio-bibliográfico de escritores de México (Critical Dictionary, co-editor, 1994)
  • Barcos que vuelan (Flying Ships, novel, Alfaguara, 2003)
  • Esto y el relámpago: Gonzalo Rojas, una biografía a viva voz (This and the Lightning: Gonzalo Rojas, A Spoken Biography, editor, Editorial Idunn, 2010)
  • Hambre de México (Hunger for Mexico, essay, editor, FCE 2012)
  • Volver. Primero estaba el mar (Return. First Was the Sea, novel, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2012)
  • México bordado al centro del corazón (Mexico Embroidered at the Heart’s Center, short story, FCE, 2012)
  • Un golpe de agua (A Blow of Water, novel, FCE, 2014)
  • La poesía de Gonzalo Rojas (The Poetry of Gonzalo Rojas, essay, editor, FCE, 2016)
  • El ojo de Narciso (The Eye of Narcissus, essay, Cuaderno Journal of the Neruda Foundation, 2022)
  • Algo temporal (A Passing Storm, novel, Hueders, 2023) — Finalist, 2021 Nadal Prize for the Novel.
  • Sangre negra (Black blood, Alfaguara, 2026)

Reviews of Something Temporary

“An excellent novel in its construction, language, and meaning.”
— Pedro Lastra on A Passing Storm

“The narrator’s success in this novel is the story’s cornerstone… The prose is one of the highest points of this moving and intriguing narrative.”
— Pedro Gandolfo on A Passing Storm El Mercurio

“The way the author weaves together concepts like history, memory, and personal life results in a novel so powerful that words such as forgiveness, oblivion, and reconciliation are rendered meaningless. In these times, a novel like Paula Carrasco’s becomes an essential read.”
— Patricia Espinosa on A Passing Storm, Las Últimas Noticias

“Paula Carrasco’s latest book is a necessary one— a text that invites thought, reflection, and a more compassionate outlook.”
— Ezio Mosciatti on A Passing Storm, Radio Bío-Bío

“Fifty years after the coup, Paula Carrasco offers a unique and necessary perspective on national memory. Through a story of family fracture and dispersion, she immerses us in the best tradition of the psychological novel, with a transparent and painful style.”
— Zancada magazine on A Passing Storm

“A story of diaspora that explores the desires and anxieties of its characters, with a transparent and beautifully written style.”
— El Mostrador Cultura on A Passing Storm

“A dense, bold, and valuable novel.”
— Matías Rivas on A Passing Storm, Radio Duna

Multimedia

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