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Manuel Ballagas was born in Havana, Cuba. He published his first piece of short fiction at age 15, in Revista Casa de Las Américas, a magazine widely read in Latin America. He won second place in Cuba's David Award of 1967 with the book of short stories Lástima que no sea el verano. Since 1980, he has lived in the US, where he was an editor with The Wall Street Journal, The Miami Herald and The Tampa Tribune. He founded and co-directed Termino, a literary journal, between 1981 and 1984. He is the author of two novels, two books of short stories and this memoir. Some of his works have been translated to English, French and German. He is the son of the late Cuban poet Emilio Ballagas.