Born in Chepén, Peru, Eduardo González Viaña took a degree in law, followed by a PhD in Literature at the University of Trujillo. Since the 1990s he has lived in the United States where he is a member of faculty at Western Oregon University. He is a corresponding member of the Peruvian Academy of the Spanish Language.
González Viaña has published some 20 books, including Los peces muertos (short stories), Batalla de Felipe en la casa de las palomas (short stories), Identificación de David (novel), ¡Habla Sampedro: llama a los brujos! (testimony), El tiempo del amor (short stories), Sarita Colonia viene volando (novel), Las sombras y las mujeres (short stories), Correo de Salem (articles), Correo del Milenio (articles) and La dichosa memoria (articles).
His collection of short stories Los sueños de América (Alfaguara), which has been translated into English (American Dreams) and re-edited many times, won the US Latino Literature Prize in 2000. A year before, in 1999, one of the short stories featured in the collection, “Siete días en California” (Seven days in California) won the Juan Rulfo Prize. The play based on this book was released with big success in London (Oxford House Theatre, August 2007), and was also a massive hit in Peru (Teatro Mocha Graña, Lima, September 2007).
His novel El corrido de Dante (Arte Público Press , 2006) won the International Latino Book Award 2007. It has been published in english in the United States in October 2007 (Dante's Ballad, Arte Público Press), in Italy in November 2007 (La ballata di Dante, Edizioni Gorée), and has been published in Spain in March 2008 (Alfaqueque Ediciones) and in Peru in August 2008 (Planeta). The novel is nominated for the IMPAC Prize 2009.
In his latest, outstanding novel, Vallejo en los infiernos, González Viaña takes as his protagonist the famous poet, César Vallejo. It has been published in Spain in September 2008 by Alfaqueque Ediciones and will come out in Italy (Edizioni Gorée) in November 2008.
