Alicia Kozameh (born March 20, 1953) is an Argentine novelist, short story writer and poet, and Professor in the Creative Writing Program, Department of English, at Chapman University in Southern California. Kozameh has published seven novels, a collection of short stories and six books of poetry. She has also edited two anthologies and wrote a book in collaboration with other authors, former political prisoners from the last Argentine military dictatorship in her country. Life Alicia Kozameh was born in Rosario, Santa Fe, to a father of Lebanese Christian background and a mother of Syrian Jewish origin. She studied philosophy and literature at the University of Rosario from 1973 to 1975, and at the University of Buenos Aires from 1985 to 1987. Her studies were interrupted from September 1975 until December 1978 while she was detained as a political prisoner during Argentina's most recent military dictatorship. After her release, she continued to suffer constant repression and persecution, and was forced to go into exile in 1980, first in California, and later in Mexico. During her exile, she published works in Mexico and California and wrote her first novel, El séptimo sueño (The Seventh Dream), a manuscript she decided not to publish. She returned to Argentina in 1984, after the Falklands War and the return of democratic elections to her country. In 1987, the Editorial Contrapunto, in Buenos Aires, published her second novel, Pasos bajo el agua (Steps Under Water), a fictionalized account of her experiences as a political prisoner and an exile. Many other articles and stories were published in newspapers and cultural magazines in Buenos Aires during that period, as well as reviews of Pasos bajo el agua, which sold out in six months. In Buenos Aires, she completed a screenplay based on her novel Steps Under Water. The English translation of Pasos bajo el agua (Steps Under Water) was published by University of California Press in 1996. The novel has been included in course syllabi of numerous university classes in the United States. The German version of this novel, Schritte unter Wasser, was published by Milena Verlag Editions, Vienna, in 1999. As a consequence of the publication of Pasos bajo el agua in 1987, Kozameh was threatened by members of the Argentine political police. She returned to California for her family's safety in 1988. Since then, she has been invited by Amnesty International to participate in panel discussions and