Verónica Murguía is a writer, translator, and, when possible, a literature professor. She lives in Mexico City. She studied history at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at UNAM.
Her interest in Arabic culture led her to write Auliya, a novel in the tradition of The Arabian Nights, and a historical tale about the death of the greatest Arab poet, al-Mutannabbi, who was assassinated at the gates of Baghdad in 965. Auliya was a finalist in the Rattenfänger competition held by the city of Hamelin to award the best fable with a medieval theme published in German. It has been translated into Portuguese and will soon be published in Russian, under the auspices of Samokat.
She has also published The Angel of Nicholas, a collection of stories with medieval and mythical themes that has been translated into Italian; The Green Fire, a fantasy novel; the children's novel Barking and Spells; the epic novel Loba, which won the Gran Angular Prize in Spain in 2013, and the collection of short stories for young audiences Cuatro talismanes (Four Talismans).
She has written more than a dozen children's books, translated two collections of essays by Francisco González-Crussí, two books by William Alexander, and the autobiographical book Ilegal (Illegal) by José Ángel "N.," published by the University of Illinois.
Her most recent novel, El cuarto jinete (The Fourth Horseman), is set in 1348, when the bubonic plague killed more than a third of Europe's population. It seeks to recover the stoicism and mystery of those years lived on the edge, with the awareness that the children and grandchildren of the survivors were the ones who lit the lights of the Renaissance.