Denise Phé-Funchal (Guatemala, 1977) is a writer and sociologist. She is currently a professor at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala where she teaches courses in Composition and European literature.

She is the author of the novel Las Flores (F&G Eds., 2007), the poetry collection Manual del Mundo Paraíso (Catafixia Eds., 2010), and the short-story collection Buenas Costumbres (F&G Eds., 2011).

Her short stories have been published in Sin Casaca (Centro de Cultura Española, Guatemala, 2008), Región (Interzona Eds., Argentina, 2011), Memorias de la Casa (Índole Eds. , El Salvador , 2012 ), Ni Hermosa ni Maldita (Alfaguara, Guatemala 2012), El Futuro Empezó Ayer (Catafixia Eds. and UNESCO, 2012) and Un Espejo Roto (GEICA and Goethe Institut, 2014). She has published a series of short stories for children in Expresiones (Editorial Piedra Santa, 2011). Her poems have appeared in the anthologies Poesía para Todos (Oscar L. Palacios, Guatemala, 2011) and Memorias de la Casa (Índole Eds., El Salvador, 2011).

In 2009 she wrote the script for the documentary Reinas de la Noche (Vizconde productions), and in 2010 the script for Chapstick (Vizconde productions), a screen adaptation of one of her short fictions; the feature got selected for the Short Film Corner at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

Denise is an active participant in Literature and Writing colloquia. She attended the Congress of Central American Literature in 2007, the International Poetry Festival of San Salvador in 2010, and, in 2011 she presented the book Buenas Costumbres at the International Book Fair in Guadalajara. In May 2014 she participated in the New York conference Journeys Toward Daylight / Guatemalan Writers: Travel to the Sunrise. She has taken part in panel discussions and book presentations in Guatemala’s annual book fair since 2007.

Denise was selected as a competition juror for the Mario Monteforte Toledo novel award in 2010 and for the Banco Agromercantil and F&G Editores literature contest in 2014.

Denise was a member of the literature workshop La Casa del Escritor in El Salvador, which ran under the direction of writer Rafael Menjivar Ochoa (1959-2011 ).

The novel Ana Smiles, her most recent work, will be published by F&G editions in the second half of 2014.

She is currently working on her novel Las Flores, which was presented in the 2014 Workshop of Movie Projects of Central America and the Caribbean.

Photo: David Lepe