Efrén Ordóñez GARZA

I was born in Monterrey, Mexico and graduated from Universidad Regiomontana with a BA in Communications. Later, I studied screenwriting at Escuela de Cine Séptima-ars in Madrid. I wrote the novel Humo (NitroPress, 2017), which was awarded the Nuevo Leon Prize in Literature in 2014 and published under the title Ruinas (CONARTE/Conaculta 2015). I wrote the short story collection Gris infierno (An.alfa.beta 2014) and the children’s book Tlacuache. Historia de una cola (FCAS 2015).

In 2008, I started a translation agency that evolved into a writing studio that now operates as the editorial branding agency Courier 12.

In 2017, I created Argonáutica, a literary translation press, alongside Marco Antonio Alcalá, for which I translated the short story collection Melville’s Beard || Las barbas de Melville, by Mark Haber.

In 2022, I started the MFA program in Creative Writing at The City College of New York, where I am working on a memoir-in-essays about my writing life. I am also finishing my third novel thanks to a PECDA grant from the The National Endowment for Culture and Arts in Mexico.

In 2023, I started a new chapter of my professional life as the Assistant Director for Outreach and Partnerships at CUNY Mexican Studies Institute.

My second novel, Productos desechables, is forthcoming from Textofilia in Mexico.