Felipe Restrepo Pombo
Felipe Restrepo Pombo (Bogotá, 1978) is a journalist, author, and editor. In 2017 he was selected as one of the best young Latin American authors of the decade by the Hay Festival. His work has been translated into English, French, and Italian. He is the author of Retrato de una pesadilla, Nunca es fácil ser una celebridad, 16 retratos excéntricos, Formas de evasión, Perfiles anfibios, and Ceremonia.
In 2013, he was a guest editor for the magazine Paris Match in Paris and is now a correspondent for them. That year he was also invited to edit and prologue The Sorrows of Mexico, winner of the English PEN Award, by the UK publisher MacLehose Press. He edited two anthologies in the Crónica collection with the best narrative journalism in Latin America. In 2018, he was selected as Writer in Residence by the British Council in Wales. He has been the coordinator for the Anagrama Chronicle Prize in Spain twice and a judge for the Neustadt Literature Prize in the United State. He was an editor for Esquire in Latin America, culture editor for Semana, and director of Arcadia. He has collaborated with BBC, Words Without Borders, World Literature Today, and others. He has taught writing in the United States, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, and Colombia. He occasionally writes for the Spanish editions of The Washington Post and El País. He directed the Latin American magazine Gatopardo for six years.
“Felipe Restrepo Pombo is a rare talent amongst modern writers, capable of turning his hand to narrative non-fiction and fiction - as well as being an editor of the first order - and his chosen themes are as fascinating as they are timely.”
“Felipe Restrepo Pombo is a professional voyeur; a writer with his feet well planted in reality. Nothing escapes him. He observes, re-observes, takes note and then he tells us the whole story. I like how he gets down and dirty with the things and people he writes about; to such a degree that once you’ve finished reading one of his pieces you feel like you’ve emerged from a battlefield. His pieces have that marvelous quality that has been lost from modern journalism: the look exactly like reality.”
“He converses, he looks, and then he thinks, he reads, he subtracts, he adds, he remembers, he cuts, he sheds light, he concludes and, with prose that is as clear as a cloudless sky, as assured as a mountain climber’s boot.”
“Restrepo Pombo upholds a type of journalism that demands excavation (...) The author searched for the truth behind the mask. His work is a huge breath of fresh air.”
“Colombian journalist, author and editor Felipe Restrepo Pombo always manages to discover something new in the subjects he profiles. That is what’s most surprising about his pieces; with an acute and intelligent perspective—and transparent prose—he manages to transform these famous celebrities into regular people filled with doubts who live at a frenetic pace that is hard to understand.”
“Restrepo Pombo is one of the biggest players in Mexico City media.”
“Felipe has a sharp and insightful mind. As a journalist, he has earned the respect of readers and colleagues alike with his crónicas and profiles, must-reads for anyone who wants to understand the people shaping the culture and politics of Latin America. Under his leadership, Gatopardo magazine has become more and more relevant, thanks to his instincts and careful reading of the stories pulsating around us.”
Ceremonia
FICTION, 2021
Perfiles anfibios
NON-FICTION, 2020
Formas de evasión
FICTION, 2016
16 retratos excéntricos
NON FICTION, 2014
Nunca es fácil ser una celebridad
NON FICTION, 2013
Francis Bacon: Retrato de una pesadilla
NON FICTION, 2008