Chile. Author of novels and short stories for both adults and children, she received many accolades during her literary career. When her four children grew up, she studied sculpture at the School of Fine Arts, an artistic discipline in which she was also prominent and awarded, but which she later abandoned for literature. She was a founding member of the Chilean chapter of IBBY. Among her many distinctions are first place in the Jorge Luis Borges International Short Story Competition, the Gabriela Mistral Municipal Prize for Color hollín, the María Luisa Bombal Prize for her novel La tertulia musical de los Irizarte, and the Pedro de Oña Prize for Incendiaron la escuela and later for La segunda vida. Many of her short stories are included in various anthologies.