Laura Gallego García (born in

Quart de Poblet Quart de Poblet (; Spanish and unofficially: ' ),Toponym in Castilian as the Spanish Royal Academy: ''Spelling of Spanish.'' Madrid: Espasa, 1999. ; "Appendix 3, pages 133–155. or simply Quart (; ), is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of ...

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

(

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

) on 11 October 1977) is a Spanish author of

young adult literature Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as family dysfunction, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. It is characterized by simpler world build ...

Biography

Laura Gallego García was born in

, on 11 October 1977. She is a Spanish novelist of children and juvenile literature, specializing in the

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

genre. She studied Hispanic Philology at the

University of Valencia The University of Valencia ( ), shortened to UV, is a public research university in Valencia, Spain. It is one of the oldest universities in Spain, and the oldest in the Valencian Community. It is regarded as one of Spain's leading academic i ...

Professional career

At age 11, she started writing ‘Zodiaccía, a different world’. She spent ten years finishing it and, although it has never been published, she has a special affection for this story. Then, she was sure about being a

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

and she sent her work to several literary contests for years. At the age of 21, after finishing high school, she decided to study Hispanic Philology in the

. She continued sending her work to publishing houses and contests but she did not publish anything until she wrote ‘Finis Mundi’, which was the first book she published. Previously, she wrote 13 books but none of them were brought to light. With ‘Finis Mundi’, the novelist won the ‘Barco de Vapor’ Prize in 1999 after having participated for several years. This contest is celebrated every year by SM publishing house. After the publishing of her story 'Finis Mundi', she continued with other stories such as 'Mandrágora' or the tetralogy of 'Crónicas de la Torre'. However, although her fame is mainly due to her

juvenile novel Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as family dysfunction, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. It is characterized by simpler world build ...

, she has also published stories aimed at children. In 2002, she won this contest again, this time with her novel ‘La leyenda del rey errante’. In collaboration with SM publishing house, she has also published ‘El coleccionista de relojes extraordinarios’, the

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three distinct works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games. Three-part works that are considered components of ...

of ‘Memorias de Idhún’, ‘Donde los árboles cantan’, ‘Dos velas para el diablo’, the

saga Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia. The most famous saga-genre is the (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between ...

of ‘Crónicas de la Torre’ and ‘Las hijas de Tara’, this last one as part of the collection “Gran Angular”. In 2004, she started publishing her second

, called ‘ Memorias de Idhún’ (Memorias de Idhún I: La Resistencia, Memorias de Idhún II: Tríada, Memorias de Idhún III: Panteón). This was her biggest success, with more than 750 000 copies sold. She founded the university magazine ‘Náyade’, which was distributed by the Faculty of Philology at the

. She was the co-director from 1997 to 2010. Afterwards, she has published several independent books, most of them in the

genre, as well as the second part of ‘Alas de fuego’, entitled ‘Alas negras’. She has also entered the

realist literature Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts * Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: * American Realism * Classical Realism * L ...

with the serie «Sara y las goleadoras», which includes titles such as: ‘Creando equipo’, ‘Las chicas somos guerreras’, ‘Goleadoras en la liga’, ‘El fútbol y el amor son incompatibles’, ‘Las Goleadoras no se rinden’ and ‘El último gol’. Her novel ‘Donde los árboles cantan’, published in October 2011, won the ‘Premio Nacional de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil’ in 2012. Also, she has won the ‘Cervantes Chico’ Prize. That same year, she returned to children's literature with ‘Mago por casualidad’. In March 2017, she published ‘Por una rosa’, a book that contains three stories written by three different novelists: Laura Gallego, Javier Ruescas and Benito Taibo. These are three stories set in the universe of the classic tale ‘

Beauty and the Beast "Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales''). Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...

’.

Thematic style and characteristic

She has explored many of the literary subjects: she began with historical- fantasy literature with her story ‘Finis Mundi but also

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

with her story ‘Las hijas de Tara’. Later, she wrote about epic fantasy. This type of literature was reflected in her story ’Memorias de Idhún’. She has also written stories for children. In her fantasy narrative, particularly with ‘Memorias de Idhún’, the theme of love is just as or more important than the fantasy theme. The characters constantly express their feelings, doubts, misgivings, disappointment, etc., and are guided by them, generally more so than other concepts such as honour or duty. This is what most differentiates her from novelists like

Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...

. Thus, reflection on one's own feeling occupies a lot of the space in the dialogues and the reproduction of thought. This fact is favoured by the decision to employ a passionate love triangle in his story ‘Memorias de Idhún’. She is inspired by some elements from the work of some novelists such as

Margaret Weis Margaret Edith Weis (; born March 16, 1948) is an American fantasy and science fiction author of dozens of novels and short stories. At TSR, Inc., she teamed with Tracy Hickman to create the ''Dragonlance'' role-playing game (RPG) world. She is f ...

and

Tracy Hickman Tracy Raye Hickman (born November 26, 1955) is an American fantasy author and designer of games and virtual reality (VR) experiences. He co-authored the original ''Dragonlance'' novels with Margaret Weis as well as numerous other books. He also ...

, particularly from their stories ‘La espada de Joram’, ‘

Dragonlance ''Dragonlance'' is a shared universe created by Laura and Tracy Hickman, and expanded by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis under the direction of TSR, Inc. into a series of fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived ''Dragonlance'' while driving i ...

’ and ‘El ciclo de la puerta de la muerte’.

Books

Her books have been translate
into a multitude of languages
Bulgarian, Catalan, Danish,

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

, Hungarian,

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

, Norwegian,

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

, Portuguese,

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

. * 1999: ''Finis Mundi'' (Barco de Vapor Award, 1999) * 2000: ''El Valle de los Lobos'' * 2002: ''La maldición del Maestro '' * 2003: ''La llamada de los muertos'' * 2004: ''Fenris, el elfo '' * 2004: ''Memorias de Idhún I: La Resistencia'' * 2005: ''Memorias de Idhún II: Tríada'' * 2006: ''Memorias de Idhún III: Panteón'' * 2009: ''Sara y las goleadoras: Las chicas somos guerreras'' * 2009: ''Sara y las goleadoras: Goleadoras en la liga'' * 2010: ''Sara y las goleadoras: El fútbol y el amor son incompatibles'' * 2010: ''Sara y las goleadoras: Las goleadoras no se rinden'' * 2010: ''Sara y las goleadoras: El último gol'' * 2001: ''El cartero de los sueños'' * 2001: ''Retorno a la Isla Blanca'' * 2002: ''Las hijas de Tara'' * 2002: ''La leyenda del rey errante'' (Barco de Vapor Award, 2001) * 2003: ''Mandrágora'' * 2003: ''¿Dónde está Alba?'' * 2004: ''El coleccionista de relojes extraordinarios'' * 2004: ''Alas de fuego'' * 2004: ''La hija de la noche'' * 2004: ''Max ya no hace reír'' * 2004: ''Alba tiene una amiga muy especial'' * 2005: ''El fantasma en apuros'' * 2007: ''La emperatriz de los Etéreos'' * 2008: ''Dos velas para el diablo'' * 2009: ''Alas negras'' * 2011: ''Dónde los árboles cantan'' * 2012: ''Mago por casualidad'' * 2013: ''El Libro de los Portales'' * 2014: ''Enciclopedia de Idhún'' * 2015: ''Todas las Hadas del Reino'' * 2015: ''Héroes por casualidad'' * 2016: ''Omnia: todo lo que puedas soñar'' * 2017: ''Cuando me veas'' * 2017: ''Por una rosa'' * 2018: ''Guardianes de la Ciudadela: El bestiario de Axlin'' *2018 (2019 in the US): ''Guardianes de la Ciudadela: El secreto de Xein'' *2019: ''Guardianes de la Ciudadela: La misión de Rox'' *2021: El ciclo del eterno emperador *2022: Stravagantia *2024: Todos los hombres del rey

Awards

The major prize the novelist has received is the ‘Premio Nacional de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil’ in 2012 with her fantasy-epic story ‘Dónde los árboles cantan’. This award, endowed with 20,000 euros, was given by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. This award meant that her story was the best book in children's or juvenile literature published in 2011 in any of the official languages spoken in

. Likewise, in 2011, she was awarded with the ‘Premio Cervantes Chico’ Prize by the City Hall of

Alcalá de Henares Alcalá de Henares () is a Spanish municipality of the Community of Madrid. Housing is primarily located on the right (north) bank of the Henares River, Henares. , it has a population of 193,751, making it the region's third-most populated Municip ...

and the ‘Asociación de Libreros y Papeleros’. She was also awarded with the ‘Premio de Literatura Infantil El Barco de Vapor’ twice. First, in 1999, with her story ‘Finis Mundi’ and then, in 2002, with her story ‘La leyenda del rey errante’. She also received the ‘Imaginamalaga 2013’ Prize with her story ‘El libro de los portales’, and also the ‘Kelvin 505’ Prize in 2016.

References

External links

Laura Gallego's official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallego Garcia, Laura 1977 births Living people People from Horta Oest Writers from the Valencian Community Spanish children's writers Spanish women children's writers Spanish fantasy writers