Luis Mateo Díez

Invitado de Honor

(Villablino, León, 1942) is a writer and member of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) since his election in 2000. He co-founded the poetry magazine Claraboya and, in 1972, his poetry book Señales de humo was published.

His published novels include: Apócrifo del clavel y la espina (1974 Café Gijón Award), La fuente de la edad (1986, Premio Nacional de Narrativa and Premio de la Crítica awards), Las horas completas (1990), La ruina del cielo. Un obituario (1999, Premio Nacional de Narrativa and Premio de la Crítica awards), Los frutos de la niebla (2008, Premio de la Crítica de Castilla y León award) and El amo de la pista (2024). El reino de Celama (2003) brings together his three novels set in this imaginary land, and in Fábulas del sentimiento (2013), he grouped the four short volumes of novels from that narrative cycle.

His short stories include: Relato de Babia (1981), El árbol de los cuentos. Cuentos reunidos (1973-2004) (2006), La cabeza en llamas (2012, Francisco Umbral Award), Celama (un recuento) (2022) and El limbo de los cines (2023, with illustrations by Emilio Urberuaga).

 His books of non-fiction and diverse genres include El porvenir de la ficción (1992), La mano del sueño (Algunas consideraciones sobre el arte narrativo, la imaginación y la memoria) (Induction speech into the RAE, given on May 20, 2001), Orillas de la ficción (2010) and Los desayunos del Café Borenes (2015).

In addition to those already mentioned, he has received the Premio Castilla y León de las Letras and the Premio de Literatura de la Comunidad de Madrid awards. In 2020, he received the award Premio Nacional de las Letras Españolas, and in 2023, the Cervantes Award.

Other activities involving the participant:

Writing goodbye
Tradition and modernity in the Spanish and Mexican short story