Lourdes Espinola

She was honored by the French Government as a guest writer, giving readings and lectures at the Universities of Caen, Lyon, University of Toulouse II-Le Mirail, Avignon, Montpellier, Rouen, and at the Sorbonne. In 2005, she was elected Foreign Poet the Year in France by the International Poets and Writers House (Maison Internationale des poètes et des écrivains). Espinola was also invited to give lectures as guest writer in Germany, at the University of Heidelberg.

Espinola was invited by the United States Government to participate in the prestigious International Writer's Program, at the University of Iowa in 1997. During that period, Espinola was guest writer at Wellesley College, the University of Miami, and at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington DC, among other institutions.

She has been a consultant to the United Nations and translator for the Human Development Reports. She has also been a translator for the Swiss Red Cross, as well as translator and interpreter at the XX Assembly of the Organization of American States, held in 1990.

Lourdes Espinola (born Lourdes Espinola Wiezell on February 9, 1954 in Asuncion, Paraguay) is a Paraguayan poet, diplomat, cultural promoter, and literary critic. Daughter of the laureate Paraguayan writer and philosopher Elsa Wiezell, Espinola's academic background includes the fields of health sciences, international relations, as well as philology and literature, at universities of the United States and Europe.