Hispanic Studies

Clara Obligado

(Argentina/Spain)

Biography

Clara Obligado was born in Buenos Aires. A political exile from the military dictatorship, she has lived in Spain since 1976. She has a degree in Literature, and she has directed the first Creative Writing workshops organized in Spain, an activity she has carried out for numerous universities and various institutions and which she carries out independently. In 1996, she received the Femenino Lumen prize for her novel La hija de Marx (The Daughter of Marx) and in 2015 the Juan March Cencillo short novel prize for Petrarca para viajeros (Petrarch for Travelers). She has published several works with Páginas de Espuma, including the anthologies Por favor (Please), sea breve 1 and 2 (Be Brief 1 and 2), which are landmark works in the implementation of flash fiction in Spain. She has also published volumes of short stories, including Las otras vidas (The Other Lives), El libro de los viajes equivocados (The Book of Wrong Trips, which earned the 9th Premio Setenil for the Best Book of Short Stories of 2012), La muerte juega a los dados (The Woman Plays Dice) and La biblioteca de agua (The Water Library). Obligado has numerous books of essays including, among others, Una casa lejos de casa. La escritura extranjera (A Home Away From Home. Foreign Writing) and, most recently, Todo lo que crece. Naturaleza y escritura (Everything That Grows. Nature and Writing), also published by Páginas de Espuma. She is also a contributor in journalistic publications, and her work has been translated into several languages.

(Photo: Manuel Yllera)

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