Elena Fernández Gómez, known by the pen name Elena Santiago, is a Spanish writer, the recipient of honors such as the Rosa Chacel Award, the 1999 Province of Valladolid Literary Prize, and the.
Biography
Elena Santiago was born in, where her father, Apolinar Fernández Santiago, was a medical doctor for more than 40 years. Her mother "despite many busy hours, read very continuously, and that was a tireless source of wonders, reading and writing." She began her studies at the age of six, at the school of her hometown. Three years later she continued her studies in León, at the Colegio de la Asunción, where she learned "fear and sadness from not being with the family." Santiago then began teacher training and took Literature Studies, first in León and then in Madrid, where she "changed her life." From the beginning she wanted to dedicate herself to writing, painting, playing the piano, studying languages, and letters. Santiago began publishing in her teens. Little by little she went over to letters until she devoted herself fully to literature. Her first two publications, selected by Temas magazine, were short stories entitled "El Hijo" and "Historia sobre el terremoto de Perú". Since then, she has continued to publish poetry, short stories, poetic prose, novels, and children's literature. Santiago began receiving awards with her first publications in 1973. Her first three novels, La oscuridad somos nosotros, Ácidos días, and Gente oscura, received, respectively, the City of Irún, Novelas y Cuentos, and Miguel Delibes Awards. In her literary career she has alternated novels with short stories, dedicating periods to the latter genre "out of the need to tell stories." This is what happened when she wrote the stories collected under the title Lo tuyo soy yo in 2004. Another stage of her literary activity was the eight years she devoted to children's literature, and to try to overcome health and family problems. After this period, in which she received honors such as the Rosa Chacel Award and the, she reappeared in 2009 with La muerte y las cerezas.
The work of Elena Santiago has been studied in the context of the Congress of Contemporary Literature and in that of women novelists in the literary panorama of the 20th century. It was also the subject of the doctoral thesis defended by Dr. Muriel Taján, with the title Mythe personnel et écriture dans l'oeovre d'Elena Santiago, Évolutions et involutions d'une quête de l'absante. Taján is the author of the prologue to the novel Nunca el ovido that Santiago published in 2015, after a period of six years of absence.
Collective works
Elena Santiago has collaborated on collective works, such as Cuentos de este siglo, Cien años de cuento, El Faro, Miguel Delibes, and Jorge Guillén. She also participated, with 15 other authors, on the project Contemos la Navidad, an anthology of stories and Christmas illustrations in homage to, which are published annually. The project is coordinated by. In its 2013 edition, the presentation was a tribute to Elena Santiago in which her daughter and granddaughter, who is the author of one of the stories, participated. Another project on which Santiago collaborated compiles traditional folktales narrated by voices of Castile and León. She also contributed to the collective book Inmenso estrecho. Cuentos sobre inmigración, with the story "Finalmente, ¿una oscuridad?", a work in solidarity with immigration in which she advocates the need to move towards a multicultural society.
Works
Un camino amarillo, La última puerta, Las horas quietas y Cada invierno, short stories
La oscuridad somos nosotros
Un mundo detrás de la puerta, El ruido, Antes de cerrar la puerta, short stories
