Héctor Abad: Héctor Abad was born in Medellín, Columbia, in 1958, and was just twelve when he wrote his first stories, going on to win the 1980 Colombian National Short Story Prize at just twenty-one. In 1987 his father was murdered, and Abad was forced to escape to Italy. While in exile, he published his first book, Malos Pensamientos (1991) but it was only upon returning to Colombia in 1993, that he became a full-time writer. His autobiographical Oblivion: a Memoir has recently become available in English. Anne Mclean: This twice Independent Foreign Fiction Prize winner is the living proof of the saying "where there is a will there is a way" as she began to learn Spanish in her late twenties and grew familiar with Cervante's tongue while living in Central America. Years later in England she decided to take a Master's Degree in Literary Translation and that is how Anne McLean got to translate works by Julio Cortázar, Javier Cercas, Evelio Rosero, Juan Gabriel Vázquez, Ignacio Martínez de Pisón and Carmen Martín Gaite, among others. She was awarded the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2009 and 2004 for her translations of Los ejércitos and Soldados de Salamina.