Hispanic Studies

Karina Sainz Borgo

(Venezuela)

Biography

Karina Sainz Borgo was born in Caracas in 1982, when everything was about to go up in flames. She works as a journalist specializing in cultural issues at Vozpopuli.com, Zenda and Onda Cero, although she writes all the time. She has published several journalistic books, including Caracas Hip-Hop (Caracas, 2007) and Tráfico y Guaire. El País y sus Intelectuales (Traffic and the Guaire. The Country and its Intellectuals) (Caracas, 2007), and maintains the blog Crónicas Barbitúricas (Barbiturate Chronicles). Her short story "Tijeras" (“Scissors”) was published by the prestigious magazine Granta and in 2021 was selected by Chimamanda Gnozi Adichie for the anthology The Best Short Stories 2021: The O. Henry Prize Winners. Her first novel, La hija de la española (It Would Be Night in Caracas, New York, HarperVia, 2019) received critical and reader acclaim, won the Grand Prix de l'Héroïne Madame Figaro and the International Literary Prize, was a finalist for the Kulturhuset Stadsteatern Stockholm, and was nominated for the LiBeraturpreis. Considered one of the best books of the year by NPR and Time, it is being translated into twenty-six languages and has sold film rights. In 2019, Karina Sainz Borgo was chosen as one of the one hundred most creative people by Forbes magazine. El Tercer País (The Third Country, New York, HarperVia, 2024) is her latest novel.

“Karina Sainz Borgo has the gift of storytelling in her veins.” – Jorge Franco

(Photo: Jeosm) 

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