

Hello, I'm Irene Vasco, a writer and educator for readers and writers. My life revolves around books. I've been a bookseller, librarian, and author.
I spend my years traveling and conducting literature workshops for children and young people, awakening their desire to read and encouraging everyone to write their own texts. What I love most is traveling to remote places—by bus, boat, motorcycle, jeep, even horseback—to meet with teachers, community leaders, librarians, parents, leaders, and, of course, children and young people.
I was born in Colombia and live here, but I feel like I'm from many places. If I go to Brazil, I think I'm Brazilian because my mother was from there. If I go to Venezuela, I also feel like I'm from that country, because it's where my daughter María del Sol was born and where my two oldest sons, Rafael and Santiago, grew up. If I travel around Antioquia, Colombia, I say hello here and there, believing they're all my cousins, because my paternal family is part of the region's history. If I were ever to go to Russia or Slovakia, I would look for my grandparents' birthplaces.

Nominated by the International Book Association for Young People (IBBY) for the
Hans Christian Andersen Prize 2026
