Maria Luisa Sanchez

Born María Luisa Bombal to parents of Argentinean, French, and German descent, María Luisa Sánchez was a novelist and short-story writer known for her individual and personal style. She broke away from the masculine, regionalist, and realist tradition of Latin American fiction in the 1930s. Her two acclaimed novels, La última niebla (The Final Mist) of 1935 and La amortajada (The Shrouded Woman) of 1938, explore female experience with stories of women who escape lonely, boring, and unfulfilled existences through fantasy. Sánchez was awarded the annual prize from the Chilean Academy of Arts and Letters in 1977 for her short story “La historia de María Griselda” and the municipal prize from the city of Santiago in 1942 for La amortajada.