Edmundo Paz Soldán, born in Cochabamba in 1967, is a professor of Latin American literature at Cornell University. He is the author of novels including Río fugitivo [translated into English as Rio Fugitive], [translated into English as The Matter of Desire], Iris and Allá afuera hay monstruos [translated into English as There Are Monsters Out There], and of short story collections such as Las máscaras de la nada [translated into English as The Masks of Nothingness], Desapariciones [translated into English as Disappearances], Las visiones [translated into English as Visions] and La vía del futuro [translated into English as The Way of the Future]. His work has been translated into nine languages and has earned him awards including the Juan Rulfo Prize and the Bolivian National Novel Prize. His most recent book, El comienzo del paraíso [The Beginning of Paradise] (Páginas de Espuma), explores how human intervention in nature has made us strangers on our own planet.