Belén Gopegui

Belén Ruiz de Gopegui Durán (born 1963, in Madrid) is a Spanish novelist and screenwriter.

Biography 
Gopegui is a Spanish novelist and essayist who has been hailed by contemporary critics as an unmissable and highly influential voice in Spanish literature. She graduated in Law from the Autonomous University of Madrid, where she directed the magazine Trasgo, and gained a doctorate in Humanities from the Carlos III University. She began her professional career collaborating in the literary sections of various media, including the newspaper El Sol, for which she conducted interviews. She is also a student and practitioner of the Commons at Escuela Popular de Prosperidad. You can often find Gopegui's work in independent and free-access media like Rebelion.org.

She is the daughter of Margarita Durán Suárez, one of the founders of Amnesty International in Spain, and the aerospace scientist Luis Ruiz de Gopegui, one of the few Spanish astrophysics experts of his generation outside of exile.

She began her professional writing career as a contributor of interviews and book reviews to the literary sections of diverse media outlets. In 1993 she published La escala de los mapas, which won two prizes for debut novels: el Premio Tigre Juan and el Premio Iberoamericano Santiago del Nuevo Extremo. Two years later, her book La conquista del aire was adapted into a film titled Las razones de mis amigos, directed by Gerardo Herrero and with a screenplay written by Ángeles González-Sinde and Gopegui herself. She went on to write screenplays for La suerte dormida and El principio de Arquímedes. Lo real was a finalist for three prizes: Premio de la Crítica 2001, Premio Fundación José Manuel Lara de Novela 2002, and XIII Premio Rómulo Gallegos 2003. Her novel Deseo de ser punk won the Dulce Chacón prize in 2010. From 2011 to 2017 she published three novels that explore the relationship between systems of interconnectedness through the internet and individuals' capacity for action: Acceso no autorizado, El comité de la noche, and Quédate este día y esta noche conmigo. Her talk Ella pisó la luna. Ellas pisaron la luna, delivered in March 2019, is a tribute to all women whose achievements have not yet come to light. In 2021 she published another novel, Existiríamos el mar.

Belén Gopegui is also the author of numerous children's stories including El balonazo, El amigo que surgió de un viejo ordenador, and Mi misión era acercarme a Miranda.

As an essayist she is well known for her works Un pistolezato en medio de un concierto and Rompiendo algo (UDP).

Bibliography
La escala de los mapas. Anagrama, 1993
Premio Tigre Juan 1993
Premio Iberoamericano "Santiago del Nuevo Extremo" 1994
Tocarnos la cara. Anagrama, 1995
Cualladó: puntos de vista, 1995
En desierta playa, 1995
La conquista del aire. Anagrama, 1998
Lo real. Anagrama, 2001
Finalista del XIII Premio Rómulo Gallegos 2003
Finalista del I Premio Fundación José Manuel Lara de Novela 2002
Finalista del Premio de la Crítica 2001
El lado frío de la almohada. El Cultural 2003
con González-Sinde, Ángeles. La suerte dormida, 2003 (script).
El principio de Arquímedes, 2004 (script).
El lado frío de la almohada. Anagrama, 2004
El padre de Blancanieves. Anagrama, 2007
El Balonazo. Anagrama, 2008
Deseo de ser punk. Anagrama, 2009
The Scale of Maps, published by City Lights Books, 01/04/2011. .
Acceso no autorizado. Mondadori, 2011
El comité de la noche. Penguin Random House, 2014
Fuera de la burbuja, Gran Angular, 2017
Quédate este día y esta noche conmigo Penguin Random House, 2017
Las nubesfuria , Somos libros, 2021
Existiríamos el mar, Random House 2021
 Stay This Day and Night with Me, published by City Lights Books. 03/07/2023. .
 El murullo. La autoayuda como novela, un caso de confabulación (Debate, 2023)

External links
 Biographical sketch Constellation of the Commons 
Belén Gopegui in Escritoras.com: Information on women authors and their works
Author of the month in Escritores.org.
Interview for El Mundo (April 22, 2001)
Interview with Marta Rivera de la Cruz, in Espéculo 7, 1997.
Review of La conquista del aire by Marta Rivera de la Cruz, in Espéculo 8, 1997.
Interview by Miren Eraso

References

Spanish women writers
1963 births
Living people
Autonomous University of Madrid alumni
Spanish women novelists
Spanish women journalists
Spanish communists
Writers from Madrid