Mexican author Dahlia de la Cerda is a finalist for the International Booker Prize

Mexican writer Dahlia de la Cerda (Aguascalientes, 39 years old) is one of the 13 finalists for the International Booker Prize , one of the most prestigious awards in the publishing world, announced this Tuesday. The author has made it onto the list with her first book, Perras de reserva , originally published by Sexto Piso in 2022. The Booker will be contested by its English edition, Reservoir bitches (a nod to Quentin Tarantino's first film, Reservoir dogs ), published by Scribe UK and translated by Julia Sanches and Heather Cleary.

The International Booker awards both novels and collections of short stories, originally written in other languages ​​– this year, 10 different languages ​​– but translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. This year, the jury decided from 154 entries, “the highest number since the prize was launched in its current format in 2016.” The award includes £50,000 as a cash prize, split evenly between author and translator. All finalists receive £5,000, also split between author and translator.

Perras de reserva is a collection of thirteen stories starring thirteen women who confront the daily life of Mexico and its constellation of everyday violence. For the Booker, they constitute “a collection of connected stories of raw, streetwise and wickedly funny fiction.” “At once social criticism and black comedy, Perras de reserva is the strident debut of one of Mexico’s most exciting new writers,” said the prestigious award winner.

This year’s jury is headed by bestselling and multi-award-winning author Max Porter, and also includes British-Nigerian author, filmmaker and photographer Caleb Femi; literary magazine editor Sana Goyal; South Korean writer and translator Anton Hur; and musician Beth Orton. In addition to Reservoir Dogs, the shortlist includes 12 other books: A Leopard-Skin Hat , On a Woman’s Madness , Heart Lamp , Perfection , Eurotrash , Under the Eye of the Big Bird , Hunchback , Small Boat , Solenoid , There's a Monster Behind the Door , On the Calculation of Volume I , and The Book of Disappearance .

After Perras de reserva , which has been published for more than ten years, De la Cerda published, also with Sexto Piso , the collection of short stories Medea me cantó un corrido (2024) and Desde los zulos (2023), a mix of “autofiction, chronicles and feminist thought”, in the words of the publisher. The author is also an activist in Morras Help Morras, which she founded and co-directs, one of the first organizations in Mexico to work on supporting women seeking to have an abortion, an issue that the writer has always considered key both in her life and in her work.

With a strong presence on social media, De la Cerda is also known for her public clashes with other writers or colleagues in the publishing world. In the last year, she has been the subject of numerous controversies that often make her a trending topic on Twitter and, in turn, serve as free publicity for her work. “It helps sell the book. It has been reprinted from one controversy to another,” she laughed in her last interview with EL PAÍS, last October.

“When I get criticized on social media and I want to fight back, or when I experience discrimination in some places, which still happens, and I want to cause a ruckus, I think: you have a reputation to look after, you’re travelling, the guards don’t follow you around the supermarket as much anymore… Are you going to screw this up? Don’t screw this up, behave, be a good savage. But then I read Virginie Despentes, who says that the fear of losing your reputation is a bourgeois thing, and I feel so guilty. I say: am I turning into a bourgeois? Why am I afraid of losing something I didn’t have before?” she reflected in the same interview.

The winner of the International Booker will be announced on 20 May at a ceremony at the Tate Modern in London. A shortlist of six finalists will be announced before then on 8 April.