“Esta mañana yo tuve una idea, un cuento anudado a otros cuentos. Ya estaban allí tres de sus personajes, rodeaban mi mesa y me miraban con los ojos clavados en mis manos. Silenciosos, esperaban que yo les diera un nombre, que les dejara existir describiendo su rostro, dibujando sus vidas con mis dedos. Allí estaban los tres mientras yo bostezaba y esperaba que el agua rompiera a hervir y se mezclara con el grano de café recién molido. Ese olor de amanecer lleno de ideas, esa taza humeante, esa rutina de gestos familiares y felices”.

Ana Merino directs the MFA program in Spanish Creative Writing at the University of Iowa. She has published seven books of poems: Preparativos para un viaje (winner of the Adonais Prize in 1994), Los días gemelos (1997), La voz de los relojes (2000), Juegos de niños (winner of the Fray Luis de León Prize in 2003/translated into English and published by Harbor Mountain Press in 2012), Compañera de celda (2006) (translated into English and published by Harbor Mountain Press in 2007), Hagamos caso al tigre (2010), and Curacíon (Accésit Jaime Gil de Biedma Prize, 2010). She is also the author of a youth novel, El hombre de los dos corazones (2009). A selection of her poetry was translated into German by teamart Verlag Zurich in 2009. Her poems have appeared in more than twenty anthologies, some translated into Portuguese, Slovenian, French, Dutch, Bulgarian, or Italian. Merino has also written fiction, criticism on comics and graphic novels in her essay, “Hispanic Comics,” and a monograph on Chris Ware. Merino has won the Diario de Avisos prize for her short articles on comics for the literary magazine Leer. Merino is a member of the board of directors of the Center for Cartoon Studies and has curated four comic book expositions.