Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo, known as Jorge Luis Borges, was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, regarded as a key figure in both Spanish-language and international literature. His most celebrated works, Ficciones (translated as Fictions) and El Aleph (translated as The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are collections of short stories interwoven with themes such as dreams, labyrinths, libraries, mirrors, fictional writers, and European mythologies. These stories explore philosophical concepts such as memory, eternity, postmodernity, and metafiction. Borges's contributions have had a profound impact on philosophical literature, the fantasy genre, and poststructuralism, deeply influencing the magic realist movement in 20th century Latin American literature.

Born in Buenos Aires, Borges moved with his family to Switzerland in 1914, where he studied at the Collège de Genève. The family then traveled extensively in Europe, including Spain. Returning to Argentina in 1921, he began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals, while also working as a librarian, professor, and public lecturer. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. By the age of 55, he became almost completely blind. It is suggested that his progressive blindness inspired him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination. By the 1960s, his work was widely translated and published in the United States and Europe.

In 1961, Borges came to international attention when he received the first Formentor Prize, shared with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, he won the Jerusalem Prize. His international reputation was further solidified during the 1960s, aided by the increasing availability of English translations, the Latin American Boom, and the success of García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. He dedicated his final work, The Conspirators, to the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Writer and essayist J. M. Coetzee stated, "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish American novelists."