Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson was raised in a Pentecostal Christian family and published her first book when she was 24. This semi-autobiographical debut novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (published in Spanish as Fruta Prohibida, Lumen, 2017), relates the difficulties faced by a lesbian girl who rebels against the conventional values of her community. The text was adapted for television by the BBC and became a resounding success in the United Kingdom. Ever since, she has been considered one of the most imaginative writers in present-day English literature and, moreover, her work has received the Whitbread Prize (1985), a BAFTA award (1992), the St. Louis Literary Award (2014), two Lambda Literary Awards (1994 and 2014), and she was also named Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2018.

Her extensive, wide-ranging work, translated into Spanish and Catalan by Lumen and Periscopi, invites readers to join her in shining light on the complex corners of human experience, while also affirming the power of art to make sense of things. Notable among these works are The Passion, 1987 (in Catalan La passió, 2015); her autobiography, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, 2011 (in Catalan, Per què ser feliç quan podries ser normal?, 2020); and Frankissstein: A Love Story, 2019 (in Catalan Frankisstein), a book with which she presents her interest in the relationship between technological developments and the human condition. This task of immersion in contemporary scientific debates then took essay form in 12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next, 2021 (in Spanish, 12 bytes, Lumen, 2022). Jeanette Winterson also teaches Creative Writing at the University of Manchester. In 2023 she publishes Night Side of the River (Penguin; in Spanish, Días de Fantasmas, Lumen), a book that delves into another of Winterson’s interests: ghost stories.