Ana Istarú
Areas of expertise
Theater and poetry
Degree
- B.A. in Fine Arts, University of Costa Rica
Potential student research areas
- Costa Rican theater
- Playwriting
- Costa Rican poetry
Biography
Ana Istarú, poet, actress and dramatist, was born in San José, Costa Rica in 1960. As an actress, she is the recipient of several awards, chief among them the Costa Rican National Award for a Lead Actress. She has published six poetry books. Her poems have appeared in translation in highly regarded journals and anthologies in the United States and Europe. “La estación de fiebre” (Fever Season), has been published in Madrid, and in Paris in a bilingual version. She has earned accolades internationally as the recipient of the María Teresa León Prize for Dramatists (1995), given by the Spanish Association of Stage Director, for “Baby boom in Paradise”, and the Machado Theater Prize (1999), given by the municipal government in Seville, Spain, for “Men in marinade”. Her work has been performed in Spanish and in translation in 17 countries in Latina America, the United States and Spain. She penned the script for CARIBE, an award-winning (Trieste, Italy; Huelva, Spain) 2004 Costa Rican film directed by Esteban Ramírez. In 1990 she won the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation grant.