19 Facts About Marie Arana

Marie Arana was born in Lima, Peru, the daughter of Jorge Enrique Arana Cisneros, a Peruvian-born civil engineer, and Marie Elverine Clapp Campbell, an American from Kansas and Boston, whose family has deep roots in the United States.

Marie Arana moved with her parents to Summit, New Jersey, at the age of nine.

Marie Arana is a Writer at Large for The Washington Post.

Marie Arana is married to Jonathan Yardley, the Posts former chief book critic, and has two children from a previous marriage and two stepchildren.

Marie Arana is the author of a memoir about a bicultural childhood American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood ; editor of a collection of Washington Post essays about the writer's craft, The Writing Life ; and the author of Cellophane.

Marie Arana has written introductions for many books, among them a National Geographic book of aerial photographs of South America, Through the Eyes of the Condor.

Marie Arana is the President of the 151-year-old Literary Society of Washington and a member of the Board of Trustees of PEN America.

Marie Arana was a member of the Advisory Board for SOUTHCOM, the US Military Command for Central and South America.

Marie Arana has served on the board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Marie Arana is a member of the Madison Council of the Library of Congress and the Board of Governors of Northwestern University.

Marie Arana has been a judge for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award as well as for the National Book Critics Circle.

Marie Arana's commentary has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Virginia Quarterly Review, USA Today, Civilization, Smithsonian, National Geographic, and numerous other literary publications throughout the Americas.

In October 2009, Marie Arana received the Alumna Award of the Year at Northwestern University.

Marie Arana was scriptwriter for the Latin American portion of the film "Girl Rising," which describes the life of Senna, a 14-year-old girl in the Andean gold-mining town of La Rinconada.

Marie Arana's writing about that experience, which was published in The Best American Travel Writing 2013, was named one of "the most gripping and sobering" of the year.

In March 2015, Marie Arana directed the Iberian Suite Festival Literary Series for the Kennedy Center.

Marie Arana has curated the literary programs for the international festivals of the Kennedy Center for many years.

In October 2015, Arana was named Chair of the Cultures of the Countries of the South, an honorary post at the John W Kluge Center of the Library of Congress.

Marie Arana then became Literary Advisor to the Librarian of Congress as well as director of the National Book Festival.