MARIE ARANA was born in Lima, Peru. She is the author of the memoir American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood (The Dial Press), which was a finalist for the National Book Award; Cellophane: A Novel (The Dial Press) and Lima Nights: A Novel (The Dial Press); the prizewinning biography Bolívar: American Liberator (Simon & Schuster); Silver, Sword, and Stone: Three Crucibles in the Latin American Story (Simon & Schuster), a narrative history of Latin America; The Writing Life: Writers On How They Think And Work (PublicAffairs), a collection from her well-known column for The Washington Post; and LatinoLand: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority (Simon & Schuster). She is the inaugural literary director of the Library of Congress and lives in Washington, D.C., and Lima, Peru.
