José Ignacio Valenzuela, also known by the nickname Chascas, is a Chilean writer and screenwriter. He has published novels and short fiction, and has written more than twenty telenovelas and six feature films. His bestsellers in Latin America include Trilogía del malamor, Malaluna, and Mi Abuela la Loca. Valenzuela’s To the End of the World (Deletrea), is the first installment of the Trilogia. It’s a story of love, betrayal and fantasy, where a trip to the end of the world becomes the ultimate quest for survival. In it, we learn that when Angela receives an eerie text message from her estranged, best-friend Patricia, her heart stops. Something is off and Angela knows it. So she quickly embarks on a biting quest to Almahue, a small town in the Chilean Patagonia, which, according to the Malamor Legend, is cursed to live without love or face death. Deception and mystery unfold, as true love leaves Angela defying the legend she once brushed off and fighting alongside the entire town for their own lives. Writing about the Trilogía del Malamor, for Puerto Rico’s El Nuevo Dia, writer and critic Carmen Dolores Hernández noted that “Valenzuela has achieved with this trilogy something very difficult: a book series which is pleasant because of its storyline, full of constant action, fantasy and mystery, but also one which is suggestive to the eternal hero’s journey (…) It will not only captivate young readers but everybody who enjoys reading adventure stories.”
(Santiago, Chile, 1972)
Narrador, dramaturgo, autor de libros para niños y jóvenes y guionista de cine y televisión. Reside en Estados Unidos. Ha publicado obras para adultos como Con la noche encima (1999), La mujer infinita (2010) y Salida de emergencia (2011). Para los niños y jóvenes ha dado a conocer ¿De qué color es tu sombra? (2014), Pepito y la calle más aburrida del mundo (2016), Mi abuela la loca (2015), Hashtag (2017), Mi tío Pachunga (2019) y la trilogía Malamor (integrada por tres novelas: Hacia el fin del mundo, La raíz del mal y El árbol de la vida). Presenta en la feria una nueva edición, preparada por SUMA, de su novela El filo de tu piel, en la que narra una compleja relación sentimental que tiene a la ciudad de Nueva York por escenario principal. Participa, además, en el VI Seminario de Literatura infantil y lectura.