Antonio José Ponte was born in 1964 in Matanzas, Cuba. He moved to Havana in 1980, where he completed studies in hydraulic engineering at the University of Havana, and worked five years as an engineer. He left engineering to write for film, completing scripts for two full-length films and a documentary. In recent years, his award-winning books of essays, fiction, and poetry have appeared in Cuba, Spain, France, Mexico, and Sweden. His collection of short stories, In the Cold of the Malecón and Other Stories, was published in English by City Lights Publishers in 2000. His second collection of short stories, Stories from Around the Empire, was published by City Lights Publishers in 2002.