Carmen Balcells

Carmen Balcells Segala was a literary agent of Spanish-language authors from Spain and Latin America, including six Nobel Prize–winning authors. She led her agency from 1956 to 2000, during which time she was one of the driving forces behind the 1960s boom of Latin American literature. After her retirement she was awarded with an honorary doctorate, besides other awards, but returned to the agency in 2008. Authors who have published with Balcells have dedicated novels to her and included her as characters in her work; she is praised as "one of the most powerful and influential women in Spanish letters." She died at the age of 85 in Barcelona on 20 September 2015. At her death Mario Vargas Llosa said: "Carmen queridísima, hasta pronto".