Alexis Iparraguirre (April 8, 1974) is a Peruvian short story writer and literary critic. In 2004, he won the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru National Prize for fiction.
In 2013, the Guadalajara International Book Fair chose him as part of , its annual meeting for emerging Latin American literary voices, and, in 2021, he was included in a list of ten essential Peruvian writers () at the beginning of the 21st Century by the Spanish daily newspaper El País.
Biography Iparraguirre was born in Lima, Peru. He studied Hispanic literature at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (, PUCP). In 2000, he won the PUCP Student Union's Literary Prize for fiction, and four years later, in 2004, (Inventory of Ships), his then unpublished collection of short stories, won the PUCP National Prize for fiction.
In 2011, he moved to the United States, obtaining an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish from New York University, and a Ph.D. in Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures from the Graduate Center, CUNY. Since 2014 he has taught Spanish and Hispanic Cultures at the City College of New York (CCNY) and John Jay College of Criminal Justice, as well as independent creative writing workshops.
Following the publication of , in 2005, several of Iparraguirre's short stories appeared in Peruvian, Latin American and Latino anthologies, including (2005), (2008), (2013), and made in USA (2016). In 2016, his second book of short stories, (Fire of Crowds) was chosen short story book of the year by most of the cultural columns in the Peruvian press, including the daily newspaper Perú.21 and the political magazine Caretas.
In 2021, the Spanish daily newspaper El País chose Iparraguirre as one of the ten essential contemporary Peruvian writers ().
In 2022, he co-edited with Francisco Joaquín Marro (This Reality Does Not Exist), a collection of 14 science fiction short stories by Peruvian writers.
Iparraguirre's works have been partially translated into English.
Themes According to Carlos Amador: "In Peruvian writer Alexis Iparraguirre's short story collection, (2005), the short stories "" and "" manifest the specific role that racialized, lumpenproletarian life, ecological collapse, and biomechanical engineering, in the form of hallucinogens or mutants, have in developing literature's reflective and predictive capacity. Set in a Peru stripped down to its barest national markers, Iparraguirre's stories write about the way in which everyday life, comprising Peruvian economic contradictions and colonial racial hierarchies, is marked in the logics of enfleshing into discourses of subjectivity. The precariousness of social life and the ways which the matter of the world is social, effectual, and dynamic are represented as an agent, an actively material sphere that unsettles historical blindnesses and challenges binary logic of the human and non-human."https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003207603-12/global-south-literatures-new-materialisms-carlos-amador?context=ubx&refId=94b29318-32ef-4327-8378-20954a7e63fd
Books His book of short stories, (Inventory of Ships), won the prestigious PUCP National Prize for Narrative in 2005.Bruno Ysla Heredia: Publicación de la semana: "El inventario de las naves" de Alexis Iparraguirre (in Spanish) In 2016, he published (The Fire of Crowds), his second collection of short stories. In 2021, he co-edited (with Francisco Joaquín Marro) (This reality does not exist), a collection of 14 science-fiction short stories by Peruvian writers.José Carlos Yrigoyen: "Esta realidad no existe": un portal a lo mejor de ciencia ficción peruana (in Spanish) In 2022, he published (House of Present Without Windows), a weird fiction story. In 2025, he edited Nada humano sobrevive aquí (Nothing Human Survives Here), an anthology of Peruvian horror stories inspired by H.P. Lovecraft.
Works published in anthologies (compilation by Álvaro Lasso), Lima, Estruendomudo Editores, 2005. (compilation by Álvaro Lasso), Lima, Estruendomudo Editores, 2007. (selection and introduction by Gabriel Ruiz Ortega), Lima, Revuelta Editores, 2007.Disidentes.Muestra de la nueva narrativa peruana in the Peruvian books website (in Spanish) (compilation by Miguel Ildefonso), Lima, San Marcos, 2007.Libro Ciudad Perdida (selection and introduction by Gabriel Ruiz Ortega), Lima, Altazor Editores, 2012.El último disidente. Entrevista a Gabriel Ruiz Ortega (selection and introduction by Gabriel Rimachi Sialer and Carlos Sotomayor), Lima, Editorial Casatomada, 2012. (selection and introduction by Ricardo González Vigil), Lima: Copé, 2013.Julio Meza Díaz: Todas las voces, todas (selection and introduction by Miguel Ángel Manrique), Bogotá, Taller de Edición Rocca, 2014.Brenda Morales Muñoz: Notas sobre el cuento peruano contemporáneo (selection and introduction by Víctor Ruíz Velazco), Lima, Santuario Editorial, 2015.Javier Ágreda: El comienzo de algo (compilation by Jorge Luis Cáceres), Buenos Aires: Interzona Editora y La Biblioteca de Babel, 2015. (selection and introduction by Antonio Díaz Oliva), New York: Sudaquia, 2016.Gonzalo Baeza: Nueva antología: Estados Hispanos de América (selection and introduction by Audrey Louyer), Lima, Maquinaciones, 2017. (compilation by Jorge Luis Cáceres), Lima, Editorial Casatomada, 2018.Presentan antología de cuentos hispanoamericanos de terror en homenaje a Stephen King (in Spanish) (selection and introduction by José Güich), Lima, Universidad de Lima, 2018. Publicaciones de la Universidad de Lima (selection and introduction by Luis Hernán Castañeda and Carlos Villacorta), Lima, PEISA, 2019.Escritores peruanos ficcionalizan sobre su relación con Estados Unidos (selection and introduction by Elton Honores), Lima, Altazor, 2019.José Güich: Texto de presentacion de "Noticias del futuro" (selection and introduction by Oswaldo Estrada), Chicago: Ars Communitas, 2020. (selection and introduction by Ricardo González Vigil), Lima: Mascapaycha, 2021. (selection and introduction by Carlos Enrique Saldivar), Lima: Torre de papel, 2021. (selection and introduction by Cristina Mondragón), Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, 2022.Tanya Tynjälä: Reseña de libro: Fin. Antología de relatos escatológicos iberoamericanos An Anthology of Peruvian Fiction (selection, translation, and introduction by Gabriel T. Saxton-Ruiz), Dallas: Dulzorada, 2022. (selection and introduction by Víctor Ruiz Velasco), Lima: Seix Barral, 2023.
References
External links No es fábula, an Alexis Iparraguirre's short story (in Spanish) Cuentos de todas las sangres (1992-2017) by Ricardo González Vigil, a guide to Contemporary Peruvian Short Stories (in Spanish)