, June 6, 1954 – Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 , December 3, 2003) was a Spanish poet, novelist and playwright.

Born into a traditional family in the Extremadura

Extremadura

Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain whose capital city is Mérida. Its component provinces are Cáceres and Badajoz. It is bordered by Portugal to the west...

 region of Spain, her family moved to Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 on her fathers' death, when she was 12 years old.

She was known for her progressive views and her outspoken positions on capital punishment

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

 during the Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

 period, and was an organiser and speaker at the 15 March 2003 mass demonstration in Madrid against the war in Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

.

Her novel La voz dormida (translated in English as The Sleeping Voice), which drew on collected oral testimonies of the suffering of women during and after the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

, attracted widespread acclaim.

She died suddenly in Madrid in December 2003 of cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

.

Awards and recognition

• Premio de Poesía Ciudad de Irún, for Contra el desprestigio de la altura, 1995
• XXIV Premio Azorín, for Cielos de barro, 2000
• Premio Libro del Año 2002, for La voz Dormida

Poetry

• Querrán ponerle nombre (1992)
• Las palabras de la piedra (1993)
• Contra el desprestigio de la altura (1995)
• Matar al ángel (1999)
• Cuatro gotas (2003)

Novels

• Algún amor que no mate (1996)
• Blanca vuela mañana
• Háblame, musa, de aquel varón (1998)
• Cielos de barro (2000)
• La voz dormida (2002)

Short stories

• "Te querré hasta la muerte" 2003, pp. 61-64.