Soledad Puértolas Villanueva (born 3 February 1947 in

Saragossa Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributar ...

) is a Spanish writer, and on 28 January 2010 was named an '' inmortal'' or member of the Real Academia Española. She is a recipient of the

Premio Planeta de Novela The Premio Planeta de Novela is a Spanish literary prize, awarded since 1952 by the Spanish publisher Grupo Planeta to an original unpublished novel written in Spanish. It is one of about 16 literary prizes given by Planeta. Financially, it is the ...

Biography

Puértolas started studying Political Sciences in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, but political problems prevented her from pursuing this further. She then went to study Economic Sciences in

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

but again did not finish her course. She eventually took up studying journalism. She married at twenty-one and went to live with her husband in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. After returning to Spain, the couple moved to California, where she obtained an M.A. in Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

and where she gave birth to a son, Diego Pita, now a writer. After three years in California she moved back to Spain to 1974. In 1979 she won the Premio Sésamo for her work ''El bandido doblemente armado'', the Premio Planeta in 1989 for ''Queda la noche'', and the Premio Anagrama de Ensayo in 1993 with ''La vida oculta''. Puértolas was elected to Seat ''g'' of the Real Academia Española on 28 January 2010, she took up her seat on 21 November the same year. She filled the seat formerly occupied by Antonio Colino. Her short story ''Viejas historias (Tales from the Past)'' was included in ''Rainy Days - Días de lluvia: Short Stories by Contemporary Spanish Women Writers'', an anthology edited by Montserrat Lunati, together with a translation into English.

Publications

Novels

* El bandido doblemente armado. Madrid: Legasa, 1980. Novel. Premio Sésamo 1979 * Burdeos. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1986. Novel. * Todos mienten. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1988. Novel. * Queda la noche. Barcelona: Planeta, 1989. Novel. Premio Planeta 1989. * Días del Arenal. Barcelona: Planeta, 1992. Novel. * Si al atardecer llegara el mensajero. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1995. Novel. * Una vida inesperada. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1997. Novel. * La señora Berg. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1999. Novel. * La rosa de plata. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1999. Novel. * Historia de un abrigo. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2005. Novel. * Cielo nocturno. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2008. Novel. * Mi amor en vano. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2012. * Novel. Música de ópera. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2019. Novel.

Short Stories

* El recorrido de los animales. Madrid: Júcar, 1975. Short story. * Una enfermedad moral. Madrid: Trieste, 1982. Short stories. * A través de las ondas. Short story in Doce relatos de mujeres. Navajo, Ymelda (ed.) Madrid: Alianza, 1982, pp. 165–177. * La sombra de una noche. Madrid: Anaya, 1986. Short story. * La corriente del golfo. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1993. Short stories. * La hija predilecta. Short story in Madres e hijas. Freixas, Laura (ed.) Barcelona: Anagrama, 1996 * Gente que vino a mi boda. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1998. Short stories. * A la hora en que cierran los bares. Madrid: Difusión Directa Édera, 1998. Short stories. * El cuarto secreto. Short story in Relatos para un fin de milenio. Barcelona: Plaza y Janés, 1998, pp. 15–26 * El inventor del tetrabrik. Short story in Vidas de mujer. Monmany, Mercedes (ed.) Madrid: Alianza, 1998, pp. 131–143. * Un poeta en la piscina. Short story in Cuentos solidarios. Madrid: ONCE, 1999, pp. 13–15. * La carta desde el refugio. Short story in Mujeres al alba. Madrid: Alfaguara, 1999, pp. 133–136. * Adiós a las novias. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2000. Short stories. * Pisando jardines. Short story in Orosia: Mujeres de sol a sol. Jaca: Pirineum Multimedia, 2002, pp. 159–164. * Ausencia. Short story in Mujeres en ruta. 2005, pp. 41–47. * Masajes. Short story in Cuentos de amigas. Laura Freixas (ed.) Anagrama, 2009. * Cantalobos. Short story in Pertubaciones, ed. Juan Jacinto Muñoz Rengel. Salto de Página Editores, 2009. * Compañeras de viaje. Barcelona. Anagrama, 2010. Short stories. * El fin. Barcelona. Anagrama, 2015. Short stories. * Chicos y chicas. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2016. Short stories.

Essays, Articles & Biography

* El Madrid de "La lucha por la vida". Madrid: Helios, 1971. Essay. * La vida oculta. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1993. Essay. Premio Anagrama 1993. * La vida se mueve. Madrid: El País-Aguilar, 1995. Articles. * Recuerdos de otra persona. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1996. Biography. * Rosa Chacel. Essay in Retratos literarios: Escritores españoles del siglo XX evocados por sus contemporáneos. Freixas. Laura (ed.) Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1997, pp. 181–182. * Con mi madre. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2001. * Lúcida melancolía. Pamplona. Ipso ediciones. 2017. Colección Baroja & Yo. Essay.

Translations into English

* ''Take Six: Six Spanish Women Writers'', edited and translated by Kathryn Phillips-Miles and Simon Deefholts: Dedalus Books, 2022. (Contains a selection of Soledad's stories in English translation). Buzz Magazine, February 2022
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Puertolas, Soledad Living people 1947 births Spanish women writers Members of the Royal Spanish Academy