Hernan Ribera Letelier (born July 11, 1950 in Talca, Chile) is a Chilean novelist. He lived until the age of eleven in the saltpeter mining town of Algorta, in northern Chile. When the town closed, he and his family moved to Antofagasta, where his mother died. His siblings went to live with his aunts. He remained in Antofagasta, alone, until he was about eleven. To survive, he sold newspapers. He later worked as a messenger for the Anglo Lautaro Nerat company, until his passion for adventure led him to spend three years traveling in Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Argentina. He returned to Antofagasta in 1973 and began working for another company, Mantos Blancos. He married a 17-year-old girl when he was 24. Later, he left for Pedro de Valdivia, another saltpeter mining town. He completed his seventh and eighth years of night school and obtained his secondary school teacher’s license at the Instituto Enacap. Today, he lives in Antofagasta with his wife and four children. He won the Premio Consejo Nacional de Libro (Chilean National Book Award) twice, in 1994 and 1996. His novel El arte de la resurrección won the Premio Alfaguara de Novela in Spain in 2010.