Clara Sánchez will be the new holder of the X chair of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE). Jon Juaristi prevailed in the vote held this Thursday in plenary session of the learned house to fill the vacancy left by the death of the poet and Cervamtes Award winner Francisco Brines on May 20, 2021
The candidacy of the philologist and writer Clara Sánchez (Guadalajara, 1955) had been presented by Soledad Puértolas, Carme Riera and Paloma Díaz-Mas. That of the poet, narrator, essayist and professor Jon Juaristi Linacero (Bilbao, 1951) had the support of Pedro Álvarez de Miranda, Félix de Azúa and Carlos García Gual.
With 41 seats occupied out of the possible 46, up to now there were 33 men and another women: Carmen Iglesias (2002), Soledad Puértolas (2010), Inés Fernández-Ordóñez (2011), Carme Riera (2013), Aurora Egido (2014). Clara Janés (2016), Paz Battaner (2017), Paloma Díaz-Mas (2022) and Clara Sánchez (2013). With the X occupied, the letters A and R are vacant, whose previous owners were the lexicographer Manuel Seco and the writer Javier Marías.
fifteen novels
Clara Sánchez is one of the most recognized figures of our contemporary Spanish narrative. She spent her childhood in Valencia and adolescence in the places where her father, a railwayman by profession, was assigned. She moved to Madrid to study Hispanic Philology at the Complutense and lives and writes in this city. She is the author of fifteen novels, she won the Planeta prize just two years after signing up for Nadal, already with Alfaguara in her bag of great commercial prizes.
A declared admirer of Camus, Maupassant, Horacio Quiroga, Dos Passos, Faulkner and García Márquez, before devoting herself exclusively to writing, she held various jobs. She taught for several years at the university and participated in the program ‘Qué grande es el cine’, directed by José Luis Garci.
‘Precious stones’, (1989), was his first novel, which was followed by ‘The night is no different’ (1990), ‘The stranded palace’ (1993), ‘From the viewpoint’ (1996), ‘The mystery every day’ (1999), ‘Ultimas noticias del paraíso’, (2000, Alfaguara prize), ‘A million lights’ (2004), ‘Presentimientos’ (2008, made into a film by Santiago Tabernero), ‘What hide your name’ (2010, Nadal Award, about the Nazi refugees on the Levantine coast, their great leap into the international market, with enormous acceptance, good sales in Italy and Germany), ‘Enter my life’ (2012, which dealt with the thorny and painful matter of stolen children), ‘Heaven has returned (2013, Planeta Award), ‘When light comes’ (2015) and The silent lover (2019). His work has been translated in twenty countries and has sold more than two million books
He has received the Mandarache (Cartagena), Cartelera Turia (Valencia), Bilbao Booksellers Award, the Germán Sánchez Ruipérez Award for the best literary article, the Hispanic Literary and Cultural Institute (ILCH) and the Roma and Nazionale Vincenzo Award Padula, granted in Italy.