Jaime Manrique (born 16 June 1949) is a bilingual Colombian American novelist, poet, essayist, educator, and translator.

Manrique's writing covers a variety of themes and topics with some of his more notable works ranging from talking about his father's corpse and the adventures of a young gay Colombian immigrant.

In 1974, Manrique met Pauline Kael, The New Yorker's film critic, with whom he began a friendship that lasted until her death in 2001.

About this novel James Dao wrote in The New York Times: "A picaresque tale about a gay Colombian immigrant's adventures among hookers, self-made millionaires, narcotics traffickers and elderly book mavens..." and also stated that "the novel is hardly intended to portray the "typical" immigrant experience.

"[2] In 1995, he published My Night with Federico García Lorca[3] (Lambda Book Award Finalist), about which John Ashbery said, "Memories of an ecstatic childhood—walks by the sea, 'a happy mambo,' eating deceptive tropical fruits—merge with those of recent loves in these luscious, incantatory poems.

"[4] The novel Twilight at the Equator appeared in 1997, of which Ilan Stavans said in The Washington Post: "He is, after all, the most accomplished gay Latino writer of his generation, a picaro prone to shock his readers by testing the moral standards of his time.

About Maricones Eminentes Ilan Stavans said in The Washington Post that the book is "his sterling examination, through short narrative lives, of the gender wars in the Hispanic world.

"[9] Manrique novels, poemas and essays have been translated into English, Spanish, Hebrew, Polish, Turkish, Japanese, Chinese, German, Russian, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, and other languages.

Manrique's works published in English tend to categorically fall into areas of a more public domain where the thoughts and ideas presented are meant to be more easily digestible and understood.

Within Jaime Manrique's poetry book, Los Adoradores de la Luna, there are visible expressions of homosexuality.

Because of the pronoun forms of the Spanish language, this allows the reader to interpret the sex of the speaker based on individual choice.

A particular example of this effect in the poem collection, Los Adoradores de la Luna, is in the use of the words "te amaba" which could be perceived as spoken from a male or female since this form hold both the masculine and feminine parts of speech.

The wolves express tones of danger and darkness which portrays how Manrique seeks to share some enchanting features of love.

Manrique's work is a combination of his current culture and upbringing which shines through the Spanish poetry and English written texts uniquely.

[10] The ability of Manrique as author to write in both languages and also create unified and individualistic themes distinguishes his work.