Elvira Navarro

Elvira Navarro Ponferrada (born 25 March 1978) is a Spanish writer.
Career
Elvira Navarro holds a licentiate in Philosophy from the Complutense University of Madrid. In 2004 she won the City Council of Madrid's Young Creators Competition, and enjoyed a creative scholarship at the Residencia de Estudiantes. She has published two complementary books: La ciudad en invierno (The City in Winter) and La ciudad feliz (The Happy City), as well as the novels La trabajadora (The Working Woman) and Los últimos días de Adelaida García Morales (The Last Days of Adelaida García Morales). Her work has earned the , the for Best New Author, and the Fnac New Talent Distinction. Navarro is also the author of the blog Periferia, an ongoing work on the neighborhoods of Madrid that explores bordering and undefined spaces. In 2010 she was included in the magazine Grantas list of the 22 best Spanish-language novelists under 35.
In 2013 she was selected as one of the Spanish voices with the greatest futures by El Cultural, and in 2014 the same magazine rated La trabajadora one of the ten best Spanish-language novels of the year. Portions of her work have been translated into English, French, Swedish, Italian, Turkish, and Arabic.
She has written for magazines such as El Cultural, Ínsula, Letras Libres Turia, and Calle 20, and for the newspapers Público, eldiario.es, El Mundo, and El País. She has performed literary criticism for Qué Leer, Revista de Libros, and the blog . She became editor of the Caballo de Troya imprint in 2015, and teaches writing workshops.
Controversy
Her novel Los últimos días de Adelaida García Morales was harshly criticized by the filmmaker Víctor Erice in El País. Erice accused Navarro of trivializing the figure of Adelaida García Morales (his ex-wife), and causing grief to her loved ones by writing "a sort of fake fiction documentary" rather than a well-researched biography. Navarro's retort and various public interventions by other writers (such as Juan Marsé, in support of Erice) increased the controversy and the debate over the limits of fiction.
Works
Novels and short stories
La ciudad en invierno, Barcelona, Caballo de Troya, 2007; Debolsillo, 2008; Debolsillo 2012;
La ciudad feliz, Barcelona, Mondadori, 2009,
El invierno y la ciudad, RHM Flash (ePub), 2012,
La trabajadora, Barcelona, Penguin Random House, 2014,
Los últimos días de Adelaida García Morales, Barcelona, Random House, 2016,
Collective works
Quince golpes en la cabeza, compilation by Ernesto Pérez Castillo, Havana, Editorial Cajachina, 2008
Elegías íntimas. Instantáneas de cineastas, coordination by , Documenta Madrid, 2008
Asamblea portátil. Muestrario de narradores iberoamericanos. Antología de última narrativa, selection and prologue by , Lima, Editorial Casatomada, 2009
Madrid / Barcelona. Literatura y ciudad (1995–2010), editing, introduction, and reading guide by Jorge Carrión, Madrid, Iberoamericana Editorial Vervuert and Cátedra Miguel Delibes (Valladolid), 2009
The best of young Spanish language novelists, New York, Granta, 2010; Los mejores narradores jóvenes en español, Barcelona, Granta – Duomo, 2010
Siglo XXI. Los nuevos narradores del cuento español actual, editing by Gemma Pellicer and Fernando Valls, Palencia, Menoscuarto Ediciones, 2010
Chéjov comentado, editing by Sergi Bellver, Madrid, Nevsky Prospects, 2010
Pequeñas Resistencias 5. Antología del nuevo cuento español (2001–2010), editing by Andrés Neuman, Madrid, Editorial Páginas de Espuma, 2010
Los oficios del libro, various authors, Madrid, Libros de la ballena, 2011
La ciudad contada: Buenos Aires en la mirada de la nueva narrativa hispanoamericana, editing by , Buenos Aires, Ministry of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires, 2012
Cuentos en blanco y negro, editing by Miguel Ángel Oeste, Ministry of Culture of the City of Melilla, Manigua, 2012
Passageways, editing by Camille T. Dungy and Daniel Hahn, San Francisco, Two Lines – World Writing in Translation, 2012
En breve. Cuentos de escritoras españolas (1975–2010). Estudio y antología, editing by Ángeles Encinar and Carmen Valcárcel, Madrid, Editorial Biblioteca Nueva, 2012
Mar de pirañas. Nuevas voces del microrrelato español, editing by Fernando Valls, Palencia, Menoscuarto, 2012,
Madrid, con perdón. Editing and prologue by Mercedes Cebrián. Anthology of texts about Madrid by Jimina Sabadú, Antonio J. Rodríguez, Óscar Esquivias, Natalia Carrero, Grace Morales , Iosi Havilio, Roberto Enríquez, and Elvira Navarro. Editorial Caballo de Troya, 2012
Cuento español actual, compilation by Ángeles Encinar, Editorial Cátedra, 2013
Awards and distinctions
2004: Young Creators Award from the City Council of Madrid
2007: Fnac New Talent Distinction for La ciudad en invierno
2008: Finalist for the Huelva Youth Awards
2009: 25th for La ciudad feliz
2009: Evolución 09 El Duende/PlayStation Literary Creation Award
2009: La ciudad feliz chosen by Públicos Culturas section as one of the year's eye-opening books
2009: 4th for Best New Author for La ciudad feliz
2009: Finalist for the 7th Dulce Chacón Spanish Narrative Award for La ciudad feliz
2014: La trabajadora chosen by El Mundos magazine El Cultural as one of the year's best Spanish-language books
2017: Finalist for the 5th Premio de Narrativa Breve Ribera del Duero for La isla de los conejos
References
External links
Periferia
1978 births
21st-century Spanish novelists
Complutense University of Madrid alumni
Living people
People from Huelva
Spanish literary critics
Spanish women literary critics
Spanish women novelists
Spanish women short story writers
Spanish short story writers