Judges 2025

María Fernanda Ampuero (Guayaquil, Ecuador, 1976) is a writer and a journalist. She has published articles in newspapers and magazines around the world. Ampuero is the editor of the short-story section in the cultural supplement of the Spanish newspaper ABC and teaches journalism in the Universidad Complutense in Madrid. In 2012 she was selected as one of the 100 most influential Latin-Americans in Spain, where she resides.

She has published the narrative non-fiction books What I Learned at the Hair Salon (Lo que aprendí en la peluquería, Dinediciones, 2011) and Residence Permit (Permiso de residencia, La Caracola Editores, 2013). In 2016 she received the Cosecha Eñe Award for Short Stories. Cockfight (Pelea de gallos, Páginas de Espuma, 2018) was her first short story book and its success was overwhelming and he has been recipient of the first Mad Women Fest 2018 Short Story Prize.

On 2021 she published Human Sacrificies (Sacrificios humanos, Páginas de Espuma) and she was finalist of Tigre Juan Price and The Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer’s Award. Human Sacrifices, 
was one of the ten best horror books of 2023 for The New York Times. The rights to adapt several of his stories to audiovisual format are being negotiated. She has just received the residency awarded by the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. Her latest book, Visceral, was published in April 2024 by Páginas de Espuma publishing house and is already in its seventh edition.

Shome Dasgupta

Shome Dasgupta is the author of The Seagull And The Urn (HarperCollins India), and most recently, the novels The Muu-Antiques(Malarkey Books) and Tentacles Numbing (Thirty West), a prose collection Histories Of Memories (Belle Point Press), a short story collection Atchafalaya Darling (Belle Point Press), and a poetry collection Iron Oxide (Assure Press). Cajun South Brown Folk, his second book of poems, is forthcoming from Belle Point Press.

His writing has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, New Orleans Review, The Emerson Review, Jabberwock Review, American Book Review, Arkansas Review, Magma Poetry, and elsewhere. His fiction and poetry have been anthologized in Best Small Fictions, The &Now Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing, and Poetic Voices Without Borders 2. His work has been featured as a storySouth Million Writers Award Notable Story, and his stories and poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, Best Of The Net, and the Orison Anthology. He took part in the Innovative Fiction panel, as a featured author, at the Louisiana Book Festival, and he served as the series editor for The Wigleaf Top 50 from 2019-2025.

He lives in Lafayette, LA and can be found at www.shomedome.com and @shome_dasgupta.