Carla Guelfenbein Dobry (born November 30, 1959) is a Chilean writer, winner of the Alfaguara Novel Prize in 2015 for her book Contigo en la distancia.

She was exiled with her parents to England in 1976 as a result of the military coup of September 11, 1973[2] which meant the fall of the Popular Unity government.

Her house had been raided and her mother, Eliana Dobry, professor of philosophy at the University of Chile and socialist militant, was detained by Pinochet's agents; her whereabouts were unknown for three weeks.

[5] Guelfenbein has worked in various jobs related to creativity, being a designer for advertising agencies and art director in fashion magazines.

That is something I owe to my mother, she is a Philosophy professor at the university and from her I learned to read, she guided my readings, I think that made me a great reader She started to write prematurely, but she published her first novel, The reverse of the soul, in 2002, followed three years later by The woman of my life (chosen as the best novel of the year by the readers of El Mercurio) in 2008 her third book came out, The rest is silence.

In 2012, she published her fourth novel, Nadar desnudas, whose storyline goes by the time of the Popular Unity and the months after Pinochet's coup.