Xohana Torres Fernández (22 November 1929 – 12 September 2017) was a Spanish writer, poet, playwright.

Biography

Torres was born in Santiago de Compostela on 22 November 1931. She was a member of the

Royal Galician Academy The Royal Galician Academy (, RAG) is an institution dedicated to the study of Galician culture and especially the Galician language; it promulgates norms of grammar, spelling, and vocabulary and works to promote the language. The Academy is bas ...

. Her best known works included the

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

, ''Adiós, María'' (1971), which won the Galician literary prize from the Galician Center of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, and ''Estación ao mar'' (1980). Torres was part of a generation of writers who championed

Galician language Galician ( , ), also known as Galego (), is a Iberian Romance languages, Western Ibero-Romance language. Around 2.4 million people have at least some degree of competence in the language, mainly in Galicia (Spain), Galicia, an Autonomo ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

during the Francoist era at a time when

regional languages * A regional language is a language spoken in a region of a sovereign state, whether it be a small area, a federated state or province or some wider area. Internationally, for the purposes of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Lang ...

were routinely suppressed. Torres also directed '' Raíz e Tempo'', the first cultural radio program broadcast exclusively in Galician. Examples of her works of

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

include ''Polo mar van as sardiñas'' (1968) and ''Pericles e a balea'' (1984). She died in

Vigo Vigo (, ; ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of province of Pontevedra, Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest ...

, Galicia, Spain, on 12 September 2017, at the age of 85.

References

1929 births 2017 deaths Galician-language writers Galician poets Writers from Galicia (Spain) Women writers from Galicia (Spain) Royal Galician Academy Spanish dramatists and playwrights Spanish women dramatists and playwrights Spanish women poets Spanish children's writers Spanish women children's writers People from Santiago de Compostela {{Galicia-writer-stub