Rosa Montero Gayo is a Spanish journalist and author of contemporary fiction.
Early life
The daughter of a bullfighter and a housewife, Montero was born in Cuatro Caminos, a district of Madrid. The contraction of tuberculosis forced her to remain at home between the ages of five and nine, and she began reading and writing extensively during that time. She then entered the Beatriz Galindo Institute of Madrid, and at 17, she began her university studies in Madrid University's School of Philosophy and Arts. The following year she was admitted into the School of Journalism, and during her university years she participated in independent theatre groups.
Writing career
After school, she began working as a journalist, and in 1976 she began working at El País. In 1977 she began publishing interviews in the Sunday edition of the paper, and the following year, she won the "Manuel del Arco" prize for her work, and was the first woman to receive it. She also published her first novel in 1979, Crónica del desamor. In 1980, she won the National Journalism prize for her articles and literary reports, and that year she was named editor in chief of El País Semanal. In 1981 she published La función Delta, and the following year, a collection of her interviews previously published in El País was released, with the title "Cinco años de país". The novel Te trataré como una reina followed in 1983 and was a commercial success. She was awarded the World Prize of interviews in 1987, and published Temblor in 1990. Her first children's story, El nido de los sueños, was published in 1992, and in the following years she released Bella y oscura and La vida desnuda. In 1994 she was awarded the Journalism Prize, and in 1997 she received the Spring Novel Prize for her work La hija del caníbal. In 1999, she published Pasiones, and in 2002, Estampas bostonianas y otros viajes. In 2003, she published what she considers one of her best works, La loca de la casa. This book won the Qué Leer Prize to the best book published in Spain in 2003, and the Grinzane Cavour Prize for the best foreign book published in Italy in 2004. In 2005 she published Historia del Rey Transparente, which has also won the Qué Leer Prize as the best book published in Spain in 2005.
