The Most Famous

WRITERS from Peru

This page contains a list of the greatest Peruvian Writers. The pantheon dataset contains 7,302 Writers, 13 of which were born in Peru. This makes Peru the birth place of the 57th most number of Writers behind Chile, and Pakistan.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Peruvian Writers of all time. This list of famous Peruvian Writers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Peruvian Writers.

1. Mario Vargas Llosa (b. 1936)

With an HPI of 72.36, Mario Vargas Llosa is the most famous Peruvian Writer. His biography has been translated into 93 different languages on wikipedia.

Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (; Spanish: [ˈmaɾjo ˈβaɾɣas ˈʎosa]), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists and one of the leading writers of his generation. Some critics consider him to have had a larger international impact and worldwide audience than any other writer of the Latin American Boom. In 2010, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat." He also won the 1967 Rómulo Gallegos Prize, the 1986 Prince of Asturias Award, the 1994 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1995 Jerusalem Prize, the 2012 Carlos Fuentes International Prize, and the 2018 Pablo Neruda Order of Artistic and Cultural Merit. In 2021, he was elected to the Académie française. Vargas Llosa rose to international fame in the 1960s with novels such as The Time of the Hero (La ciudad y los perros, literally The City and the Dogs, 1963/1966), The Green House (La casa verde, 1965/1968), and the monumental Conversation in The Cathedral (Conversación en La Catedral, 1969/1975). He writes, prolifically, across an array of literary genres, including literary criticism and journalism. His novels include comedies, murder mysteries, historical novels, and political thrillers. Several, such as Captain Pantoja and the Special Service (1973/1978) and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977/1982), have been adapted as feature films. Many of Vargas Llosa's works are influenced by the writer's perception of Peruvian society and his own experiences as a native Peruvian. Increasingly, he has expanded his range, and tackled themes that arise from other parts of the world. In his essays, Vargas Llosa has made many criticisms of nationalism in different parts of the world. Like many Latin American writers, Vargas Llosa has been politically active throughout his career. While he initially supported the Cuban revolutionary government of Fidel Castro, Vargas Llosa later became disenchanted with its policies, particularly after the imprisonment of Cuban poet Heberto Padilla in 1971, and now he identifies as a liberal and holds anti-left wing ideas. He ran for the Peruvian presidency in 1990 with the center-right Frente Democrático coalition advocating for liberal reforms, but lost the election to Alberto Fujimori. Since his exit from directly participating in politics in Peru, Vargas Llosa has advocated centre-right activists and candidates internationally. Vargas Llosa is also one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders.

2. Isabel Allende (b. 1942)

With an HPI of 71.64, Isabel Allende is the 2nd most famous Peruvian Writer. Her biography has been translated into 71 different languages.

Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (Latin American Spanish: [isaˈβel aˈʝende] ; born 2 August 1942) is a Chilean-American writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the genre magical realism, is known for novels such as The House of the Spirits (La casa de los espíritus, 1982) and City of the Beasts (La ciudad de las bestias, 2002), which have been commercially successful. Allende has been called "the world's most widely read Spanish-language author." In 2004, Allende was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2010, she received Chile's National Literature Prize. President Barack Obama awarded her the 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom. Allende's novels are often based upon her personal experience and historical events and pay homage to the lives of women, while weaving together elements of myth and realism. She has lectured and toured U.S. colleges to teach literature. Fluent in English, Allende was granted United States citizenship in 1993, having lived in California since 1989.

3. Carlos Castaneda (1925 - 1998)

With an HPI of 70.27, Carlos Castaneda is the 3rd most famous Peruvian Writer. His biography has been translated into 43 different languages.

Carlos Castaneda (December 25, 1925 – April 27, 1998) was an American anthropologist and writer. Starting in 1968, Castaneda published a series of books that describe a training in shamanism that he received under the tutelage of a Yaqui "Man of Knowledge" named don Juan Matus. While Castaneda's work was accepted as factual by many when the books were first published, the training he described is now generally considered to be fictional. The first three books—The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, A Separate Reality, and Journey to Ixtlan—were written while he was an anthropology student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Castaneda was awarded his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles based on the work he described in these books. At the time of his death in 1998, Castaneda's books had sold more than eight million copies and had been published in 17 languages.

4. Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (1539 - 1616)

With an HPI of 62.67, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega is the 4th most famous Peruvian Writer. His biography has been translated into 43 different languages.

Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (12 April 1539 – 23 April 1616), born Gómez Suárez de Figueroa and known as El Inca, was a chronicler and writer born in the Viceroyalty of Peru. Sailing to Spain at 21, he was educated informally there, where he lived and worked the rest of his life. The natural son of a Spanish conquistador and an Inca noblewoman born in the early years of the conquest, he is known primarily for his chronicles of Inca history, culture, and society. His work was widely read in Europe, influential and well received. It was the first literature by an author born in the Americas to enter the western canon. After his father's death in 1559, Vega moved to Spain in 1561, seeking official acknowledgement as his father's son. His paternal uncle became a protector, and he lived in Spain for the rest of his life, where he wrote his histories of the Inca culture and Spanish conquest, as well as an account of De Soto's expedition in Florida.

5. César Vallejo (1892 - 1938)

With an HPI of 59.11, César Vallejo is the 5th most famous Peruvian Writer. His biography has been translated into 51 different languages.

César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza (March 16, 1892 – April 15, 1938) was a Peruvian poet, writer, playwright, and journalist. Although he published only two books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century in any language. Thomas Merton called him "the greatest universal poet since Dante". The late British poet, critic and biographer Martin Seymour-Smith, a leading authority on world literature, called Vallejo "the greatest twentieth-century poet in any language." He was a member of the intellectual community called North Group formed in the Peruvian north coastal city of Trujillo. Clayton Eshleman and José Rubia Barcia's translation of The Complete Posthumous Poetry of César Vallejo won the National Book Award for translation in 1979. Some of his poems have been set to music by the Indonesian composer and pianist Ananda Sukarlan, premiered by the Peruvian baritone Rudi-Fernandez Cardenas with the composer himself on the piano, and have since entered the repertoire of vocal music for baritone and piano.

6. Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala (1535 - 1615)

With an HPI of 56.54, Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala is the 6th most famous Peruvian Writer. His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala (c. 1535 – after 1616), also known as Huamán Poma or Waman Poma, was a Quechua nobleman known for chronicling and denouncing the ill treatment of the natives of the Andes by the Spanish Empire after their conquest of Peru. Today, Guaman Poma is noted for his illustrated chronicle, El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno.

7. José Carlos Mariátegui (1894 - 1930)

With an HPI of 56.28, José Carlos Mariátegui is the 7th most famous Peruvian Writer. His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

José Carlos Mariátegui La Chira (Spanish pronunciation: [xoˌse ˌkaɾ.loz maˌɾja.t̪e.ɣ̞i la ˈt͡ʃi.ɾa]; June 14, 1894 – April 16, 1930) was a Peruvian writer, sociologist, historian, journalist, politician, and Marxist philosopher. A prolific author despite his early death, El Amauta (from Quechua: hamawt'a, "teacher," a name by which he is also known in his country) is considered one of the greatest scholars of Latin America. His Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality (1928), a synthesis of his thought, became a reference work for the intelligentsia of the continent. He was the founder of the Peruvian Socialist Party (PSP) and the General Confederation of Workers of Peru (CGTP) in 1927 and 1929 respectively. The PSP initially adhered to Mariateguism for a syndicalist-influenced socialism "without tracing or copying," but after Mariategui's death in 1928 it would be reformed as the Peruvian Communist Party to be in-line with the Communist International's rigid party policy and Marxism-Leninism. In 1930 the party wing loyal to Mariategui would split and form the Socialist Party of Peru (Spanish: Partido Socialista del Perú). For the sociologist and philosopher Michael Löwy, Mariátegui is "undoubtedly the most vigorous and original Marxist thinker that Latin America has ever known." Along the same lines, José Pablo Feinmann, Argentine philosopher and cultural critic, declared him the "greatest Latin American Marxist philosopher."

8. José María Arguedas (1911 - 1969)

With an HPI of 52.82, José María Arguedas is the 8th most famous Peruvian Writer. His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

José María Arguedas Altamirano (18 January 1911 – 2 December 1969) was a Peruvian novelist, poet, and anthropologist. Arguedas was an author of mestizo descent who was fluent in the Quechua language. That fluency was gained by Arguedas’s living in two Quechua households from the age of 7 to 11. First, he lived in the Indigenous servant quarters of his stepmother's home, then, escaping her "perverse and cruel" son, with an Indigenous family approved by his father. Arguedas wrote novels, short stories, and poems in both Spanish and Quechua. Generally regarded as one of the most notable figures of 20th-century Peruvian literature, Arguedas is especially recognized for his intimate portrayals of Indigenous Andean culture. Key in his desire to depict Indigenous expression and perspective more authentically was his creation of a new idiom that blended Spanish and Quechua and premiered in his debut novel Yawar Fiesta. Notwithstanding a dearth of translations into English, the critic Martin Seymour-Smith has dubbed Arguedas "the greatest novelist of our time," who wrote "some of the most powerful prose that the world has known."

9. Ricardo Palma (1833 - 1919)

With an HPI of 50.22, Ricardo Palma is the 9th most famous Peruvian Writer. His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Manuel Ricardo Palma Soriano (February 7, 1833 – October 6, 1919) was a Peruvian author, scholar, librarian and politician. His magnum opus is the Tradiciones peruanas.

10. Ciro Alegría (1909 - 1967)

With an HPI of 49.60, Ciro Alegría is the 10th most famous Peruvian Writer. His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.

Ciro Alegría Bazán (November 4, 1909 – February 17, 1967) was a Peruvian journalist, politician, and novelist.

People

Pantheon has 15 people classified as Peruvian writers born between 1535 and 1965. Of these 15, 4 (26.67%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Peruvian writers include Mario Vargas Llosa, Isabel Allende, and Alfredo Bryce. The most famous deceased Peruvian writers include Carlos Castaneda, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, and César Vallejo. As of April 2024, 2 new Peruvian writers have been added to Pantheon including Alfredo Bryce, and Clorinda Matto de Turner.