Donna Barba Higuera is an award-winning author who masterfully blends folklore with her lived experiences to create captivating stories for young readers. Growing up in the dust-filled oil fields of Central California, she spent her life weaving tales that sparked her imagination.
Now residing in the Pacific Northwest with her family and a lively menagerie of pets, Donna is the acclaimed author of picture books like El Cucuy Is Scared, Too! and The Yellow Handkerchief. Her middle-grade novels have garnered significant recognition: Lupe Wong Won't Dance received the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor and a Pura Belpré Honor, while her second novel, The Last Cuentista, was awarded both the John Newbery Medal and the Pura Belpré Award. The Last Cuentista was also named a Best Book of the Year by the Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, and TIME. Her newest book Xolo reimagines the Aztec myth of the origin of man-and man's best friend.
The highly anticipated third and final book in The Cuentista series, Firesnake, is slated for release in Spring 2026.
Mariana Ruiz Johnson studied fine art and illustration of books for children and has been published as an author and illustrator on every continent. She currently lives in the outskirts of Buenos Aires with her husband and two children.
Aurora Humarán es traductora pública de inglés graduada de la Universidad de Buenos Aires en 1982. En 2005, recibió el diploma de correctora internacional de textos en español expedido por la Fundación Litterae-Fundéu. En sus 40 años en la profesión se ha especializado en traducción legal, de marketing y en literatura infantil y juvenil. Tradujo A long walk to water de Linda Sue Park (HMH), best-seller de The New York Times; If I built a car de Chris Van Dusen (Penguin); Bodies are cool de Tyler Feder (Penguin) y The Last Communist Virgin de Wang Ping (Selva Canela), entre otros libros. Ha sido galardonada con la Medalla de Plata del Premio Internacional del Libro Latino (edición 2023) por su traducción de The Last Cuentista de Donna Barba Higuera (Levine Querido). Desde 2011 es miembra correspondiente de la Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española. Es fundadora y actual presidenta de la Asociación Internacional de Profesionales de la Traducción y la Interpretación.
Lugar de residencia de la traductora: Buenos Aires
Aurora Humarán graduated from the University of Buenos Aires with a BA in translation in 1982. In 2005, she received her degree as an International Certified Proofreader from Fundación Litterae-Fundéu. Throughout her 40 years as a translator, she has specialized in legal, banking, marketing translation, as well as children and YA literature. Aurora is the translator of A long walk to water by Linda Sue Park (HMH), The New York Times best-seller; If I built a car by Chris Van Dusen (Penguin); Bodies are cool by Tyler Feder (Penguin), and The Last Communist Virgin by Wang Ping (Selva Canela), among other books. In October 2023, she received the Silver Medal from the International Latino Book Awards for her translation of The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera (Levine Querido). Aurora is a Corresponding Member of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language (Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española, ANLE). She is a founding member and the current president of the International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters.
Author residence: Buenos Aires
