Olga Nolla

Olga Nolla (September 18, 1938 – July 30, 2001) (full name Olga Nolla Ramírez de Arellano) was a Puerto Rican poet, writer, journalist, and professor.

Biography

Early life Olga Nolla was born September 18, 1938, in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico to José Antonio Bernabé Nolla Cabrera, an agronomist, and Olga Ramírez de Arellano, also a poet with several publications. She started as a script writer and long distance teacher of the Center for Televised Studies (now called Long Distance Learning, SEDUE). Nolla was responsible for developing scripts for courses on Occidental Civilizations. She also helped in the production. She later taught Spanish, Art History, and Humanities at the Humanities Department of the UMET, where she worked for 20 years. During this time she wrote the majority of her literary works.

Olga Nolla collaborated in many activities and organizations. She participated in the Federation of Puerto Rican Women and was editor of its magazine Palabra de Mujer (Word of a Woman) from 1976 to 1977. She also belonged to Junta Editorial of Revista Cupey, UMET's magazine, since its beginnings in 1984. She directed the magazine from 1984 to 1997 and also contributed to it by publishing essays and literary criticism. Many writers also contributed to this magazine.

During the 1990s, Olga Nolla wrote and produced a televised course on Puerto Rican narrative for the Ana G. Méndez Foundation. She also participated in many literary courses and was a strong proponent of literature by women, especially in Puerto Rico.

Themes and influences Olga Nolla was very involved in the fight for women's civil rights in Puerto Rico.

Olga Nolla was passionate about history, which is evidenced in her predilection for historical novels such as El Castillo de la Memoria and Rosas de Papel. These two novels were supposed to form part of an unfinished trilogy. Before her death, Nolla began sketching the third novel; the setting of the story would have been mid-twentieth century to present-day Puerto Rico. Nolla had also told her friend that she wanted to die while dreaming.

The Metropolitan University (UMET), where she taught for more than twenty years in the Humanities Department, created an online portal for the purpose of gathering information about her.