Elena Santiago
Elena Fernández Gómez (8 February 1936 – 3 January 2021) was a Spanish writer who used the pen name Elena Santiago. She wrote novels, short stories and books for children.
She was born in Veguellina de Órbigo, León, Spain. Her father was a doctor and her mother loved reading, which inspired her love of language and writing. She studied in León and Madrid and decided early on to pursue writing, art, music and languages.
Santiago began publishing in her teens. Her first two published short stories were El Hijo and Historia sobre el terremoto de Perú. She went on to write poetry, short stories, novels and children’s books.
She won several awards early in her career. Her novels La oscuridad somos nosotros (1976), Ácidos días (1979) and Gente oscura (1980) earned the City of Irún, Novelas y Cuentos and Miguel Delibes Awards, respectively. She also received the Felipe Trigo Award in 1983, the Rosa Chacel Award, the 1999 Province of Valladolid Literary Prize, and the Castile and León Award for Letters in 2002.
Santiago moved between writing novels and short stories, and she published a collection of short stories titled Lo tuyo soy yo in 2004. She spent eight years writing children’s literature, a period during which she faced health and family challenges, and she published La muerte y las cerezas in 2009.
Her work has been studied by scholars and discussed in literary forums. She contributed to many collective works and projects, including Contemos la Navidad, and she helped preserve regional folktales from Castile and León. She also wrote a story in the collection Inmenso estrecho. Cuentos sobre inmigración (2005), which supports a multicultural view.
Elena Santiago passed away on 3 January 2021 in Valladolid, at the age of 84.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 23:56 (CET).