Biography

Antonio Muñoz Molina (born 10 January 1956) is a Spanish writer and, since 8 June 1995, a full member of the Royal Spanish Academy. He received the 1991 Premio Planeta, the 2013 Jerusalem Prize, and the 2013 Prince of Asturias Award for literature. Muñoz Molina was born in the town of Úbeda in Jaén province. He studied history of art at the University of Granada and journalism in Madrid. He began writing in the 1980s; his first published book, El Robinsón urbano, a collection of his journalistic work, was published in 1984. His columns have regularly appeared in El País and Die Welt.

His first novel, Beatus ille, appeared in 1986. It features the imaginary city of Mágina—a re-creation of his Andalusian birthplace—which would reappear in some of his later works.

In 1987 Muñoz Molina was awarded Spain's National Narrative Prize for El invierno en Lisboa (translated as Winter in Lisbon), a homage to the genres of film noir and jazz music. His El jinete polaco received the Planeta Prize in 1991 and, again, the National Narrative Prize in 1992.

His other novels include Beltenebros (1989), a story of love and political intrigue in post-Civil War Madrid, Los misterios de Madrid (1992), and El dueño del secreto (1994).

Muñoz Molina was elected to Seat u of the Real Academia Española on 8 June 1995; he took up his seat on 16 June 1996.Muñoz Molina is married to Spanish author and journalist, Elvira Lindo. He currently resides in New York City, United States, where he served as the director of the Instituto Cervantes from 2004 to 2005.

Margaret Sayers Peden's English translation of Muñoz Molina's novel Sepharad won the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize in 2004. He also won the Jerusalem Prize in 2013. Isabelle Gugnon's French translation of Muñoz Molina's novel Un andar solitario entre la gente won the 2020 Prix Médicis étranger.