Meet the tutor

Luciana De Mello is a writer, scriptwriter, and Afro-indigenous cultural journalist born in Argentina. She is the author of the novel Mandinga and Ninguna calle termina en la esquina, a nonfiction book about the creative writing workshop she founded in one of the largest prisons in Buenos Aires. She has been writing about literature, feminisms and queer culture for the Argentinian newspaper Página 12 for nearly 20 years. She is also part of Mandacarú, a publishing house that translates cis and trans Brazilian women writers of African descent into Spanish. Her novel Mandinga will be published in Spain in October 2025 by Penguin Random House.

She is currently finishing her second novel and working with contemporary dancer Lola Vera on a research project on dance and writing. Luciana has been based in Belfast since 2022.