Laia Jufresa is a Mexicanwriter. She was born in Mexico City and grew up in Veracruz and Paris. She studied at the Sorbonne, graduating with a BA in Arts. She also lived in Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madison, Wisconsin and Cologne, Germany. She is best known for her debut novelUmami, which has been translated into multiple languages. In 2017, she was named as one of the Bogota39, a list of the most promising young writers in Latin America. When she was only six, she moved to a very rural area in Mexico where she began to read avidly, especially English books that her grandfather would send her. Later in her life she lived in France, Spain, Argentina, and now Germany. This interaction with different cultures and languages has helped her shape her literary point of view as well as her character formation making her a better writer. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in illustration. In Mexico, she studied at Mario Bellatin's Escuela Dinámica de Escritores and was awarded the two most important grants for young writers from the and the FONCA. Her work has been featured in anthologies such as Un nuevo modo, Antología de narrativa mexicana actual, Muestra de literatura joven de México and Los mejores Poemas Mexicanos 2006. Her book El esquinista was awarded an honorable mention in the National Prize for Short StorySan Luis Potosí 2012.
Literary works
Umami This novel a thoughtful, eccentric, and heart-wrenching interwoven story told from the perspective of neighbors living in a mews of five houses in Mexico City. The five houses are named after tastes: Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Sour, and Umami. Umami tells the stories of characters who are dealing with mortality, abandonment, and loss. Umami is insightful, and ultimately tells the stories of humans coping with living next to one another in order to feel less isolated and alone. El esquinista was translated from Spanish by Sophine Hughes. This is a recollection of stories written from 2004 and 2010, with the help of grants from FONCA and the Foundation for Mexican Literature. It includes “El esquinista”, “Mama contra la Tierra”, “Moud”, “Eusebio Moneda” y “Los enganos”.
