Ivonne Coñuecar (born September 26, 1980) is a

Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who s ...

writer, poet and journalist from

Coyhaique Coyhaique (), also spelled Coihaique in Patagonia, is the capital city of both the Coyhaique Province and the Aysén Region of Chile. Founded by settlers in 1929, it is a young city. Until the twentieth century, Chile showed little interest in ex ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. Her first novel, ''Coyhaiqueer,'' won the

Santiago Municipal Literature Award The Santiago Municipal Literature Award ( es, Premio Municipal de Literatura de Santiago) is one of the oldest and most important literary awards in Chile Created in 1934 by the municipality of Santiago, its first edition awarded the categories of ...

in 2019. She currently lives in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Early life and education

Coñuecar was born in 1980 in

. At 14 years old, she began to write for a literary supplement of ''Diario de Aysén'', from 1994 to 1998. Coñuecar began to study law at the Austral University of Chile, but later changed her studies to communication studies and

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...

in the same university. She graduated there with a master's degree in Contemporary

Latin American literature Latin American literature consists of the oral and written literature of Latin America in several languages, particularly in Spanish, Portuguese, and the indigenous languages of the Americas. It rose to particular prominence globally during the ...

, thanks to a scholarship granted by the

National Council of Culture and the Arts The National Council of Culture and the Arts (CNCA) was the Chilean government agency responsible for arts and cultural policy. The council was founded in 2003 and amalgamated arts and cultural policy under a single agency. It was a cabinet-level ...

. Her thesis was about the literature of the

Aysén Region The Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region ( es, Región de Aysén, , '), often shortened to Aysén Region or Aisén,Examples of name usage1, official regional government site refers to the region as "Región de Aysén"., Chile's of ...

. In 2019, she graduated with a master's degree in

Argentine literature Argentine literature, i.e. the set of literary works produced by writers who originated from Argentina, is one of the most prolific, relevant and influential in the whole Spanish speaking world, with renowned writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, J ...

at the

National University of Rosario The National University of Rosario ( es, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, UNR) is a research public university located in the city of Rosario, province of Santa Fe, Argentina. Overview Rosario National University (UNR) was created in 1968 by ...

Career

In 2008, Coñuecar published her first collection of poems, ''Catabática'', first part of a trilogy of poetry that includes ''Adiabática'' (2009) and ''Anabática'' (2014). In 2018, she released her novel ''Coyhaiqueer'', a book about the queer community in the

commune, which received the

in 2019.

Works

Novels

* ''Coyhaiqueer'' (Ñire Negro Ediciones, 2018)

Poetry

* ''Trasandina'' (Ñire Negro Ediciones, 2017) * ''Patriagonia'' (

LOM Ediciones LOM Ediciones («Lom», means in yaghan language: «sun») is a Chilean press based in Santiago. It was established in 1990. Several Chileans and Latin American writers published in this press, like Pedro Lemebel, Tomas Moulian and Enrique Lihn ...

, 2014) * ''Chagas'' (Editorial Fuga, 2010) * ''Adiabática'' (Ediciones Kultrún, 2009) * ''Catabática'' (Editorial Jabalí, 2008)

Participation in anthologies

* ''Provinciana'' n.º 2. Revista de Literatura y pensamiento ( University of Valparaiso, 2019) * ''Con mi caracol y mi revólver. Muestra de poesía chilena reciente'' (Vallejo & Co, 2018) * ''¡¡BASTA!! 100 mujeres contra la violencia de género'' (Editorial Asterion, 2012) * ''Küme Dungun/Küme Wirin. Antología Poetas Mujeres Mapuche'' (

, 2011) * ''Voces para Lilith. Literatura contemporánea de temática lésbica en Sudamérica'' (ed. by

Claudia Salazar Jiménez Claudia Salazar Jiménez (born 1976) is a Peruvian writer, editor, academic and a cultural manager. Her first novel ''Blood of the Dawn'', set in Peru during the times of internal unrest in the 1980s, was awarded Premio Las Américas. Early li ...

, Editorial Estruendomudo, 2011) * ''Lof sitiado. Homenaje poético al pueblo mapuche de Chile'' (edited by Jaime Huenún, 2011) * ''Escrituras de la memoria, reescritura de

La Araucana ''La Araucana'' (also known in English as ''The Araucaniad'') is a 16th-century epic poem in Spanish by Alonso de Ercilla, about the Spanish Conquest of Chile. It was considered the national epic of the Captaincy General of Chile and one of th ...

'' (Editorial Cuarto Propio, 2010) * ''Revista Nomadías'' n°11 (

Universidad de Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

, 2009) * ''Antología. Concurso de cuentos sobre VIH'' (SEREMI de Salud, 2004) * ''Antología del Primer Concurso de Cuentos Escuela de Medicina'' ( Austral University of Chile, 2003) * ''Antología del Décimo Concurso Nacional de Cuentos Fernando Santiván'' (Corporación Cultural Municipal de Valdivia, 2003) * ''Antología poética de mujeres latinoamericanas Voces de luna'' (Editions Alondras,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, 2001)

Awards and nominations

, novel category, for ''Cohyaiqueer'', 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coñuecar, Ivonne 1980 births Living people Mapuche women Mapuche poets 21st-century Mapuche people Chilean women writers Chilean women poets Chilean women journalists Chilean lesbian writers Chilean LGBT poets Chilean emigrants to Argentina Lesbian poets Austral University of Chile alumni