The dataset provides data on contributors—authors of contributions/articles—to Ibero-American cultural periodicals from the first half of 20th century. Using basic information like article titles and authorship as a starting point, we have retrieved a set of 60987 potential authors to 292186 articles in 309 periodicals published between 1898 and 1959, held in online repositories or libraries located in Argentina, Spain, Portugal, and Germany, all related to Spanish-speaking and Lusophone literary and cultural magazines. By applying machine learning and natural language processing tools, as well as by linking the author's names against the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF), we provide enriched information on gender, language, and nationality for about 66% of the initially identified contributor names, responsible for about 26% of the articles. We identify potential translations—loosely defined as texts published in a language different from the author’s native or writing language—and the presence of foreign authors in the Ibero-American cultural press.