Isabel Allende

Keynote Speaker | Author, social activist, and feminist icon

Literary legend, social activist, and feminist icon ISABEL ALLENDE has sold over 77 million books translated into more than 40 languages. Her bold and imaginative writing has brought together generations of readers, and has established her as one of the most respected Latin American writers—one of the most respected writers, period—the world has ever known. A native of Chile, Allende was forced into exile following the assassination of her father’s cousin, President Salvador Allende. Allende is the founder of the Isabel Allende Foundation, which promotes and preserves the fundamental rights of women and children to be empowered and protected. She has received fifteen honorary doctorates, including one from Harvard University, was inducted into the California Hall of Fame, and has received the PEN Center Lifetime Achievement Award and the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama awarded Allende the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, and in 2018 she received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. Allende is the first Spanish-language writer to receive an honorary National Book Award medal.  Her incredible life and career are dramatized in the HBO miniseries Isabel.