Virginia Vallejo is a Colombian author, journalist and media personality, and a political asylee in the United States of America since 2010. From 1972 to 1994, she was one of the leading television and radio hosts in her native country. In 2006, with her life at risk, the United States took her out of Colombia to testify in high profile criminal cases. Her memoir became the number one bestselling book in Spanish in the United States, and has inspired a string of documentaries and television serials such as Narcos, and upcoming film Escobar starring Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem.

Megan McDowell has translated many contemporary authors from Latin America and Spain, including Alejandro Zambra, Samanta Schweblin, Mariana Enriquez, Lina Meruane, Diego Zuñiga, and Carlos Fonseca. Her translations have been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Harper's and Vice. She lives in Chile.