My name is Daniela. I’m a writer, born and raised in Colombia. In March 2021, I received an acceptance letter to the Master’s in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford. It felt like a childhood dream was coming true. Three months later, I packed my life into a 23kg suitcase and took off.
Las clases fluyeron, las personas que conocí resultaron maravillosas, y la ciudad era tan mágica como siempre la imaginé. En resumen, todo – excepto, claro, aquel infame invierno británico – era perfecto.
But there was always a pebble in my shoe, tiny but bothersome. The mental library I had built, gathering readings over the years, was very different from that of my classmates. Sure, we knew each other’s classics. I was well familiar with Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Tolkien, and they had read Cervantes, García Márquez, and Borges. But we were mostly in the dark when it came to each other’s contemporary literature. I discovered English-speaking authors whose work is brilliant, but unreachable to my friends back home. Likewise, I realized many of the Spanish books that shaped me were completely unknown to my classmates.
Esta situación me inculcó el deseo de conectar estas dos culturas que habito. Me decidí a compartir algunas de esas historias que me han conmovido con las personas que amo, sin importar el idioma que hablen. Eso es lo que me inspiró a fundar Patacón Press.
Fun fact! This photo shows the inside of the Radcliffe Camera, Oxford’s most iconic building.
Español de Colombia 
English (UK)