Laura Freixas

Laura FreixasLaura Freixas (Barcelona, 1958) is one of Spain’s most important contemporary novelists and short story writers. She studied at the Lycée Français in Barcelona before reading law at university there. Her most recent works include Una vida subterránea. Diario 1991-1994 (Madrid: Errata Naturae, 2013) and El silencio de las madres y otras reflexiones sobre las mujeres en la cultura (Barcelona: Aresta, 2015). This year she will publish Todos llevan máscara. Diario 1995-1996 and her novel, Los otros son más felices, is to be reissued.

Before dedicating herself fulltime to writing, she worked as a publisher and a translator. Now, in addition to her own literary creations, she is a literary critic and a regular contributor to major Spanish newspapers and literary journals.

Freixas is one of the most significant feminist voices in Spain. Her interest in gender is a longstanding one and she edited and wrote the prologue for the important anthology of female-authored short stories, Madres e hijas (1996). Other works with a focus on women include Literatura y mujeres (2000) and La novela femenil y sus lectrices (2009). She is currently Honorary President of the Association ‘Clásicas y Modernas’, which focuses on gender equality in Spain.

This is not her first time in the UK. Freixas worked as a Spanish language assistant in two UK universities and has previously been writer in residence at universities in the UK and the US.

For a full list of her publications, see her official website.