Carlos Franz Thorud (born March 3, 1959) is a writer from Chile, who also holds Spanish citizenship.

Franz studied law at the Universidad de Chile (1976-1981) and became a member of the Chilean Bar in 1983, a career that he abandoned four years later so as to dedicate himself to literature.

Some of his works have been translated into other languages (English, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Finnish, Polish, Romanian, and Chinese), and El lugar donde estuvo el Paraíso was made into a movie by the Spaniard Gerardo Herrero with the Argentine actor Federico Luppi in the leading role.

Mario Vargas Llosa wrote "in El desierto, Carlos Franz tells a fascinating story that is, at the same time, a dive into the depths of cruelty and human compassion, and into the violence of history.

Written and constructed with a master's hand, this is one of the most original novels produced in modern Latin American literature.