GRAND PRIZE WINNER: Elba Iris Pérez

Coming soon: Elba’s debut novel, THE THINGS WE DIDN’T KNOW

Elba Iris Pérez is a writer from Río Grande, Puerto Rico. She spent her early childhood in the company town of Woronoco, Massachusetts, and returned to Puerto Rico at the age of twelve. In 2002, when she visited Woronoco and found that the company town had been torn down, she was inspired to write about the Puerto Rican families who once lived there.

As a tenured professor at the University of Puerto Rico in Arecibo, she taught Western Culture and Theatre. She is the founder of a student theatre group at UPRA, Teatro Universitario de Histriones, and a community theatre group, Taller de Teatro del Tanamá. Elba, who was a mime in Teatro Ikaro (the Sir Icarus Circus) for four years, is the author of El Teatro Como Bandera, a history of street theatre in Puerto Rico, published in 2010 by Centro de Estudios Iberoamericanos, UPRA & Librería La Tertulia.

Elba has a BA in Philosophy from the University of Puerto Rico, an MA in Theatre from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in History from the University of Puerto Rico. Additionally, she studied creative writing at the UCLA Writers’ Extension Program. Elba has two adult children and lives in Houston with her husband.

Congratulate Elba on Twitter! @elbaip

For more information about the Books Like Us First Novel Contest, see our website.