Sara Mesa

A journalist by training, the writer Sara Mesa was born in Madrid and grew up in Seville where she conceives and writes her novels. In 2020, she decided to leave journalism and devote herself fully to literature. Her books, translated into a dozen languages, are unanimously acclaimed by critics, who draw attention to her ability to explore the psychological makeup of her characters and create precise images that place readers in a space that is both uncomfortable and illuminating. Anagrama has published the novels Cuatro por cuatro (2012, finalist for the Herralde Prize for the Novel; in English, Four by Four, Open Letter, 2020), Cicatriz (2015, winner of El Ojo Crítico Prize for Fiction; in English, Scar, Dalkey Archive Press, 2017), Un incendio invisible (An Invisible Fire, originally published in 2011 by the Fundación José Manuel Lara, and reissued in a revised version in 2017), Cara de pan (Dough Face, 2018), Un Amor (A Love, 2020), and La familia (The Family, 2022, winner of the Cálamo Prize and the 20^th Andalusian Critics Prize). She has also published the short story collection Mala letra (2016; in English, Bad Handwriting, Open Letter, 2022), and the essay Silencio administrativo. La pobreza en el laberinto burocrático (Administrative Silence: Poverty in the Labyrinth of Bureaucracy, 2019), in which she considers the impact of poverty and the way society deals with it.

She has previously published the novels La sobriedad del galápago (Sobriety of the Galapagan, 2008, Diputación Provincial de Badajoz), No es fácil ser verde (It’s Not Easy to be Green, Everest, 2009), and El trepanador de cerebros (The Trepanner of Brains, Tropo Editores, 2010). She has also published the collection of poems Este jilguero agenda (This Goldfinch Diary, Devenir, 2007) and, with the illustrator Pablo Amargo, she co-authored the book Perrita Country (Páginas de Espuma, 2021). Her writing explores complexities and the diversity of individual and collective bonds. Her work has been published in several anthologies, including Tsunami. Miradas feministas (Sexto Piso, 2019) and Riesgo (:Rata_, 2017).