In publishing, ideas matter, but so do lived experiences, and perspectives. Women across the industry are driving meaningful change by sharing what they know, learning from one another, and collaborating across borders and roles – helping each other to rise.
With this in mind, we are excited to introduce a new interview series created exclusively for PublisHer. In the months ahead, Guest Writer Vivian Lavín will speak with women shaping publishing today across languages, regions, and cultural contexts, exploring the ideas, challenges, and perspectives that inform their work. For this inaugural edition, however, we thought it was a great opportunity to turn the lens on Vivian herself.
A Chilean journalist, author, radio host, literary agent, and cultural leader, Vivian brings more than three decades of experience to the series. Her work is guided by ethical inquiry, intellectual rigour, and a profound respect for the human stories that animate cultural production. Across a career spanning journalism, authorship, broadcasting, and literary representation, she has consistently amplified voices that are too often marginalised or unheard.
As founder of VLP Agency, former President of Chile’s Society for the Rights of Letters, and an active contributor to initiatives such as Mujeres con Memoria, she has long championed women’s voices within global publishing.
Through this series, Vivian will use her incredible wealth of experience to lead thoughtful, reflective, and forward-looking conversations that illuminate not only what women in publishing do, but how they think, navigate, and shape the industry from within. So, let’s kick things off!
Q: Thank you for joining PublisHer Vivian! You began your career in Chilean cultural journalism over 30 years ago. Looking back, what shaped your approach to storytelling and cultural coverage in your early career?
A: Journalism is a wonderful craft whose mission is to understand the world in order to help change it. Cultural journalism, whether written or radio-based, draws heavily on literary tools in its practice. A major influence in my early career was participating, on several occasions, in the workshops organized by the Gabriel García Márquez Foundation in Colombia, which brought journalists from across Latin America together. Working in small groups with great masters of journalism such as Pepe Ribas and Mayra Montero freed me from stylistic constraints while at the same time grounding me firmly in the responsibility of ethics and truth.
Q: Your work spans journalism, authorship, radio hosting, and running a literary agency. How have these different roles informed each other in your work promoting Latin American and Spanish-language literature and culture?
A: My work is a continuum in which these roles are not separate compartments. Journalism taught me how to listen and how to ask precise and ethical questions; radio connected me with audiences I could never have imagined; authorship confronted me with the creative writing process itself; and running a literary agency required me to understand an industry that is increasingly complex and dynamic. Each link in this chain strengthens the others and allows me to understand my work as a literary agent. Through this lens, the promotion of Latin American and Spanish-language literature and Children and YA Books can be understood as an act of translation in the broadest sense of the word. I have been able to share and bring attention to narratives that emerge from specific, often peripheral places, enabling them to engage globally under more equitable conditions. I am proud to promote Spanish as a language that unites us in diversity, with elegance and respect.
Q: You have been involved with Mujeres con Memoria since 2015. How has this participation influenced your perspective on women’s representation in literature and publishing?
A: Mujeres con Memoria has deepened my critical view of the ways in which women have historically been made invisible. The project was born out of my book Mujeres tras las rejas de Pinochet (Women Behind Pinochet’s Bars), based on the testimony of three former political prisoners, which was published in Spain in 2023 by the publishing house Cuatro Lunas under the title Pisaremos las calles nuevamente (“We Will Step on the Streets Again.”). It is a collective space for reflection on memory, human rights and women.
My greatest learning has been to understand that the female voice has its own timing and seeks intimacy and that women’s voices are uncomfortable in certain contexts, but that discomfort is necessary to build bridges for self-expression.
Q: As founder of VLP Agency, what challenges have you faced in building the agency and expanding into global markets?
A: VLP Agency has been a major challenge. In Latin America, even though we share the same language, each market is different and has its own particularities. The effort to understand these differences has been truly fascinating. Participating in book fairs across the region, meeting editors, authors and readers requires a great deal of attention and dedication. Trends are not a fixed rule in this continent, nor anywhere else in the world. What works in one place does not necessarily work in another. This has been even more evident in the Asia-Pacific region, where I have not only done business but also built meaningful personal relationships with remarkable women from the publishing world. Copy and paste does not work here; clarity of message is essential to express cultural nuances within diversity.
Q: How do you decide which stories or perspectives to highlight?
A: My interest lies in seeking out men and women who have decided to put their worldview in writing, to better humanity. How do I do this? By paying attention to what is happening and what is being published, with a focus on women with an ethical commitment to filling historical silences with their voices, around knowledge and creativity.
Q: As President of Chile’s Society for the Rights of Letters (SADEL), what challenges have women authors faced and how have you worked to address them?
A: It was a great honour to preside over SADEL until 2025, the only collective literary rights management entity that exists in Chile. SADEL has enabled many authors to understand the importance of protecting their works. Copyright is a human right and protects what is most sacred: creativity through universal and national conventions and legislation. The challenge in this age of digitalisation is to educate people about respect for copyright. Just like piracy, sharing a PDF without paying for it or without the author’s authorisation is also a crime. But there are people, and even educational institutions, that prioritise access to reading over copyright. It is the obligation of States to duly remunerate their authors through the purchase of their works to make them available to their readers, whether through libraries or digital archives, and not to sacrifice the most original aspect, which is copyright.
Q: Were there moments when you needed to assert yourself to be heard?
A: It is a painful question because it leads me to moments of doubt and insecurity, which are part of any career and, in a sense, even healthy. What is truly painful, however, is to see how so many valuable women have remained, and continue to remain, anonymous despite their enormous contributions to humanity: as authors, scientists, thinkers, or environmental advocates. Thinking about them is what drives me to keep going. Not so much for myself, but for all of us.
Q: What strategies have helped you build strong professional relationships?
A: What has helped me most is my open personality, although that doesn’t mean I don’t experience insecurity. I learned that recognising and sharing my vulnerabilities can also be a form of strength, something that I believe is closely linked to certain forms of female leadership.
But that’s not enough. Being a literary agent in the southernmost part of the world involves long journeys, suitcases full of books and intense preparation work: busy schedules, strategic meetings and constant efforts to expand networks and finalise projects.
As for mentoring, the generosity of the editors and agents who accompanied me in my early days, such as Berta Inés Concha, Mireia Trius and Marina Nommel taught me clear lessons which helped me develop a sense of responsibility. That is why I feel a deep commitment to support other women who are starting their professional careers today. Over time, I have come to understand that the strongest networks are built on reciprocity, trust and sustained work, not on urgency or immediate benefit.
Q: How has your long-term engagement shaped your perspective?
A: The most important thing for me is to seek out the human dimension that inhabits all creation. I want to understand what led that woman or man to develop an idea and write it down in a particular way, whether from a historical, sociological or literary perspective. My job is to recognise talent and originality and convey them so that others are as amazed as I am. And there are issues that move me deeply: the role of women, human rights, caring for nature and science in the service of humanity.
Q: What advice would you give to women building careers in publishing today, particularly in Latin America?
A: The most valuable thing today is to develop your own voice and a conscious view of the place from which you speak or write. As I said before, it is not about standardising or imitating, but about turning those differences into strengths.
Have a broad view, do not be influenced by social media, prejudices or prevailing fears, and build collaborative networks that work in two directions: asking for help and offering it. Go to fairs and connect with the local community. Do not immerse yourself in a bubble that may be comfortable but does not allow you to open up to new things; always allow yourself to be surprised.
