Mariela Sagel
Panama. Ambassador of Panama in Turkey. Panamanian architect, she has been general director of McCann Erickson Panama and Minister of Government and Justice in the government of former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares. She has been writing local and international media since 1981 and was awarded the 2015 Writer of the Year in Panama. It also has a weekly television program on the national newscast with the highest audience, about literature. LatinPress®. Panama.
Fernando Duran Ayanegui
Costa Rica. Graduated from the Higher School of Arts and Crafts of Havana, Cuba, and from the Faculty of Sciences and Letters of the University of Costa Rica. Doctor in Chemistry from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, and Visiting Researcher at Harvard University, Massachusetts. He was president of the Costa Rican Association of Authors of Artistic, Literary and Scientific Works, and at the University of Costa Rica he was Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Coordinator of the Graduate Studies System, Vice-Rector for Teaching and Rector. He is currently a Full Member of the Costa Rican Academy of Language, a corresponding member of the Royal Spanish Academy and a permanent columnist for the daily La Nación de Costa Rica. He has published short stories, poetry, novels and essays. He has received the following distinctions: "José Martí" Scholarship, Government of Cuba (1950-1956); Professor, University of Costa Rica, 1977; National Short Story Award of Costa Rica "Aquileo J. Echeverría", years 1981, 1986, 1987 and 1989; "Jorge Volio" Prize for Literature, from the College of Professors and Graduates of Arts, Sciences and Letters of Costa Rica, 1989; First Prize, Hispano-American Short Novel Contest, V Centenario, of the Municipality of Benalmá¬dena, Málaga, Spain, 1990; Emeritus Professor, School of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Costa Rica, 1996. LatinPress® Costa Rica.