Elena Bossi of Buenos Aires is a playwright, fiction writer, essayist, editor and lecturer who has authored several volumes of literary criticism, including Leer Poesía, Leer la Muerte (Reading Poetry, Reading Death), and a collection of essays, Los Otros (The Others) published by Universidad Nacional del Litoral in 2010.

Her book, Seres Mágicos que habitan en la Argentina; (Magical Beings of Argentina) was published in 2007, and a collection of poetry, Jirones(Rags)in 1990.

Her play En los brazos de Alfredo Alcón (In the Arms of Robert Redford) was selected to represent her province in the National Theatre Festival in Buenos Aires in 2009.

She recently edited Puna, collection of interviews and literary offerings from the region in the high Andes.

For her novella Otro Lugar (Somewhere Else) Elena received the prestigious Eduardo Mallea Municipal Award of Buenos Aires in 2012.

A PhD, she researches and teaches the theory of literary criticism and a course in contemporary Argentinean narrative.

She was chosen to attend the Iowa International Writers’ Programme in 2007.

Her academic blog is Teoría y Crítica Literaria.

Penelope Todd is the author of Island (Penguin 2010, a novel), Digging for Spain: A Writer’s Journey (2008, a memoir), and seven YA novels published by Longacre Press, including the Watermark trilogy.

Four of her YA novels were shortlisted in the NZ Post Children’s and YA Book Awards. Box received a White Raven Award. She has been the recipient of several residencies, including the Iowa International Writers’ Programme in 2007. She lives in New Zealand where she publishes original ebooks at Rosa Mira Books, and blogs at Rosa Mira Books Blog. Her own website is Life in the Intertidal Zone

Portraits by Tom Langdon, Iowa