Mary Grueso

Mary Grueso Romero (born 16 April 1947) is a Colombian writer, oral storyteller and academic. In 2025 she became the first Afro-Colombian woman to be appointed member of the Colombian Academy of Language.

Career Grueso was born on 16 April 1947 in Chuare Napi village, Guapi, Cauca Department, Colombia, known for being an afro enclave with a long history of music and oral storytelling. She got interested in poetry while studying at school. She worked as a teacher for more than thirty years and in 2010 Grueso was recognised as the best teacher in Valle del Cauca thanks to her project using literature to empower Afro-Colombian students. While working as a teacher Grueso also wrote children's stories, whose protagonists and narratives were typical of the Afro-Colombian culture of the Pacific coast of Colombia.

Books El otro yo que sí soy yo ( The other me that is really me) Del baúl de la abuela ( From Grandmother's Trunk) El mar y tú ( The Sea and You) Cuentos al calor de la luna ( Tales in the Moonlight) Mi gente. Poemas afrocolombianos ( My People. Afro-Colombian Poems) A golpe de tambor y marimba ( To the Beat of the Drum and Marimba) Agüela se fue la nuna El gran susto de Petronila ( Petronila's Big Scare) Entre panela y confite ( Between Panela and Candy) La cucarachita Mandinga ( The Little Mandinga Cockroach) La muñeca negra ( The Black Doll) La niña en el espejo ( The Girl in the Mirror)

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