Hilma Contreras

Who was Hilma Contreras?

Hilma Contreras Castillo was a Dominican writer, born in San Francisco de Macorís.

Educated in Paris, where she studied French and English, as well as literature and archaeology. She returned to the Dominican Republic in 1933. In 1937, at the encouragement of fellow writer Juan Bosch, she began writing stories, which were published in various newspapers.

In 2002 she became the first woman to receive the National Literature Award, which up until then had been awarded to men.

Contreras never married or had children, and died at her hometown in 2006.