Nicaraguan author Gioconda Belli studied at the Asunción School in Managua and completed her high school studies at the Royal College of Santa Isabel in Madrid. In 1965, she earned a degree in advertising.
Belli began publishing poems in 1970 in the supplement of the Managua newspaper La Prensa. A member of the Sandinista Liberation Front, she went into exile for political reasons, returning to her country and remaining active in politics for a time. She resumed her poetic work in 1982, publishing her first novel, La mujer habitada, in 1988, to critical and popular acclaim.
Belli's literary work lies somewhere between poetry and fiction. Her poetry has a distinctive style that is difficult to categorize as a standard. Her work, in general, seeks feminine identity, seeking to be the voice of the Nicaraguan revolutionary woman. In it, in addition to autobiographical and erotic fragments, she reveals her political and social concerns.
