World Book Day: Contemporary Readings from Spain

Jesús Carrasco

Jesús Carrasco

Writer

Jesús Carrasco was born in Badajoz, Spain, and now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. Out in the Open (Intemperie), his debut novel, was a huge bestseller in Spain, published in more than twenty-one countries, and is the winner of many international awards, including the European Union Prize for Literature 2016 and an English PEN award.

Inma López Silva

Inma López Silva

Writer

Inma López Silva is a Galician writer, theatre critic and columnist for several newspapers. Her debut novel Snow in April was published in 1996, when she was 18. Since then, she has been recognized by readers and critics alike and her books have been translated to several languages. The Daughter’s Book, her most recent novel, has been published in February 2020.

Kirmen Uribe

Kirmen Uribe

Writer

Kirmen Uribe is a New York-based Basque language writer, and one of the most relevant writers of his generation in Spain. He won the National Prize for Literature in Spain in 2009 for his first novel Bilbao-New York-Bilbao, which has been translated to more than fifteen languages.

Fernando Valverde

Fernando Valverde

Poet

Fernando Valverde is widely considered one of the top young poets writing in Spanish language today. His last book, The Insistence of Harm, received the Book of the Year award from the Latin American Writers Institute of the City University of New York. He directs the International Festival of Poetry in Granada, and is currently a professor in the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, EEUU).

Ana Galvañ

Ana Galvañ

Illustrator

Ana Galvañ is an illustrator and a comic creator from Murcia. Her work has appeared in publications coordinated by Fantagraphics, Nobrow, Ultrarradio, Vertigo DC, Off Life, Autsáider, Apa-Apa and Fosfatina. Recently, she has published Tarde en McBurger’s, a 64-page story published by Apa Apa cómics.

Alejandro Palomas

Alejandro Palomas

Writer

Alejandro Palomas has written novels such as El secreto de los Hoffman and El alma del Mundo, but his greatest success has been in children’s books: Un hijo –the second book in the trilogy Una Madre (A Mother), Un Hijo (A Son) and Un Perro (A Dog)– won the National Children’s and Young Adult’s Literature Award in 2016. In 2018, his novel Un amor was awarded with the Nadal Literary Award.

Ana Merino

Ana Merino

Writer

Ana Merino, winner of the Nadal Award 2020 for her novel El mapa de los afectos, is a Full Professor of Hispanic Studies and the 2016 Collegiate Scholar at the University of Iowa, where she created the Spanish MFA program in 2009. She has published nine books of poems, a youth novel, a children album, and four plays. Merino has also written extensive criticism on comics and graphic novels, and has curated four comic book exhibitions.

Andrés Barba

Andrés Barba

Writer

Andrés Barba is the author of more than 15 books of literary fiction, essay, and poetry, and was selected by Granta magazine as one of the best young Spanish novelists. Among his titles, available in English, are: Such Small Hands (Transit Books), The Right Intention (Transit Books), Rain over Madrid (Hispabooks), August, October (Hispabooks) and A luminous Republic (Granta and Houtghton Mifflin Hartcourt).

José Quintanar

José Quintanar

Graphic artist

José Quintanar is an artist working on narrative drawings, comics, and books. He has released several full-length graphic novels and artists’ books including Conociendo a Jari, Grundfunken, Fartlek and Culto Charles. Quintanar is also a professor at Willem de Kooning Art Academy of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and a Ph.D. Student at Universidad Politecnica Madrid, where he researches narrative structures and artists’ books.

Najat El Hachmi

Najat El Hachmi

Writer

Najat El Hachmi was born in Morocco in 1979 and moved to Spain in 1987. Her first novel, L’últim patriarca (2008), won the Ramon Llull Prize 2008 and the Prix Ulysse, and was translated into 11 languages. Her latest published work is the feminist essay Sempre han parlat per nosaltres (2019), published simultaneously in Catalan and Spanish.

José Fragoso

José Fragoso

Author & illustrator

José Fragoso is a children’s books author and illustrator. His books have been published in Spain, United States and Mexico by publishers as Scholastic, NubeOcho, Narval, Penguin Random House, Alfaguara or Canica Books, and his illustrations have appeared in publications such as 3x3 Magazine or Creative Quarterly. He is a member of the Society of Illustrators and the Society of Children’s Books Writers and illustrators.