Cristina Bendek is a Caribbean author. She was born on the island of San Andrés, Colombia, in 1987. In 2018 her first novel, Salt Crystals, won the Elisa Mújica National Novel Prize. Published in English by Charco in 2022, the novel has been translated into Portuguese and Danish. Her essays, poems and short stories have appeared in magazines and collections across the Americas and Europe. In her recent novel Las pérdidas (2026), Cristina explores fragmentation, grief and the intimate possibilities of geography. She holds a degree in Government and International Relations and an MA in Anglophone Modernities from the University of Potsdam.