Adelanida Fernández de Juan

Short story writer, narrator, and physician. Member of UNEAC. Her fiction explores the world of the feminine, the everyday, motherhood, and Cuban identity, nuanced with the ingenious use of humor.

Despite growing up in a family with a marked interest in the world of letters (daughter of the well-known poet Roberto Fernández Retamar and Adelaida de Juan, an important art critic and university professor), Laidi Fernández de Juan (born Adelaida) preferred to study medicine, graduating in 1985.

Between 1989 and 1991, while in Zambia as a collaborating physician, she discovered her interest in telling stories through letters she wrote to her parents. From this African experience her first collection of short stories would emerge: Dolly y otros cuentos africanos, winner of the Pinos Nuevos Prize in 1994.

From then on she has combined the practice of medicine with her literary work, collaborating in various periodicals and including her stories in anthologies published both in Cuba and abroad.

Her narrative is characterized by intelligent use of humor and irony and by reflecting everyday life in the lives of Cubans. The author herself has said that she cannot avoid humor and assumes it as a style. She also affirms that reading constitutes her greatest source of pleasure and that writing is a way of "avoiding being left with splinters inside."

Since 1996 she has been a member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). Her short story Clemencia bajo el sol has been adapted for theater in Cuba and Italy.

In 2013 she would revisit her African experience to write the collection of short stories Sucedió en Copperbelt, which would merit the UNEAC Prize and would be published a year later.

She writes for the column A maneras de cartas on the Cubaliteraria portal. She is a regular columnist for La Jiribilla.

Work
1994, Dolly y otros cuentos africanos. Ediciones Unión. Short stories. 1994. Published in Canada in 1996 with prologue by Keith Ellis. Reissued in 1997 by Ediciones Vigía, Matanzas, with prologue by Eliseo Diego.
1998, Oh vida. Ediciones Unión. Short stories. Uruguay, 2000.
2005, La hija de Darío. Ediciones Unión. Short stories. Ediciones Colihue, Argentina.
2006, Nadie es profeta. Ediciones Unión. Novel.
2008, La vida tomada de María E. Ediciones Unión. Short stories. ISBN 978-959-209-842-8.
2014, Jugada en G'. Ediciones Unión. Short stories.
2014, Sucedió en Copperbelt. Ediciones Unión. Short stories.
2014, Será siempre (narrative). Holguín: Ediciones Holguín
2018, La Habana nuestra de cada día. La Habana: Ediciones Boloña
2019, Tiempo de mujeres. Matanzas: Ediciones Matanzas.

Anthologies
Estatuas de sal (Cuba, 1996)
Rumba Senza palma ne careze (Italy, 1996)
Cuentos habaneros (Mexico, 1997)
Vedi Cuba e poi muori (Italy, 1997)
Clemencia bajo el sol (Cuba, 1998)
Cubana (United States, 1998)
Nuevos narradores cubanos (Spain, France, Germany, 2000)
Los nuevos caníbales (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, 2000)
Cuentistas cubanas contemporáneas (Argentina, 2001)
Palabras de espuma (Cuba, 2001)
Cuentistas cubanas de hoy (Argentina, 2001)
Totalmente a mano (Mexico, 2002)
Caminos de Eva (Puerto Rico, 2002)
Mujeres como islas (Cuba and Dominican Republic, 2002)
Cicatrices en la memoria (Cuba, 2003)
Cuentos infieles (Cuba, 2007)

Awards
1994, Pinos Nuevos Prize
1996, Grand Cecilia Valdés Prize, for her short story Clemencia bajo el sol.
Honorable mention in the International Short Story Contest Fernando González of Colombia.
1997, Prize in the Jiribilla short story contest.
1998, Luis Felipe Rodríguez Prize for her book Oh Vida
2004, Mention in the Julio Cortázar Short Story Contest for her story El beso.
2004, Distinction for National Culture.
2005, Alejo Carpentier Prize for her collection of short stories La hija de Darío.
2013, UNEAC Short Story Prize for Sucedió en Copperbelt
2015, Grand Mini-Story Prize El dinosaurio for her text Naderías de hoy.
2015, Prize from the second edition of the Short Story Contest El Hilo y la Cuerda for the work Títere
2018, Literary Criticism Prize