Marilar Aleixandre

Marilar Aleixandre (María Pilar Jiménez Aleixandre, Madrid, 1947) has a split tongue, between a writer in Galician and a researcher in critical thinking and science learning; two voices that sometimes dispute in her throat threatening to strangle her. The latter is a biologist and naturalist, one of her identities.

To write in Galician, acting as a thief, she appropriated childhoods and memories of others in Cee and Fisterra: the imaginary village of Lobeira in the stories of “Lobos nas illas” (1996/2024) (“Lobos en las islas”, 2001/2022), which has earned her a place in the Batallón Literario da Costa da Morte (Costa da Morte Literary Battalion). Due to his wanderings with poets of the BLCM he was infected by poetry, with titles such as “Catálogo de velenos” (1999) -Esquío Prize-, “Mudanzas” (2007) -PEN-Caixa Nova Prize-, or “Terra baixo as uñas” (in press, 2025).

In addition to being a poet and feminist, since she has no other way of looking at the world, she is a storyteller, possessing one of the most singular voices in Galician literature, with novels such as “As malas mulleres” (2021) (“The Bad Women”, 2022) -National Narrative Prize, 2022; and Blanco Amor, 2020); “Teoría do caos” (2001) – Xerais and San Clemente Awards – or “A Compañía Clandestina de Contrapublicidade” (1998) – Álvaro Cunqueiro Award – and volumes of chained stories, such as “O coitelo en novembro” (2010). Among his titles of children’s and young people’s literature stand out “A cabeza de Medusa” (2008) -Caixa Galicia Foundation and Martín Sarmiento Awards; White Ravens List- about the social violation that follows the physical one; “A expedición do Pacífico” (1995) -Merlín and Galician Critics’ Awards-, “Robinson contado polas alimarias” (2011), or “Herbalúa” (2006).

She has translated into Galician Lewis Carroll, “A caza do Carbairán” (1996) – IBBY Honour List-, Sandra Cisneros’ poems, “Muller ceiba” (1997), or Jane K. Rowling, “Harry Potter e a pedra filosofal” (2002). Scriptwriter of comics, “Os Escachapedras” with Fran Bueno (2022); lyricist of music such as Pilocha or Leilía; author of essays, such as “Movendo os marcos do patriarcado: O pensamento feminista de Emilia Pardo Bazán” (2021) with María López Sández; of literary lives, “Castelao segundo Rañolas” (2000); “Juana de Vega: A muller que desafiou o seu tempo” (2022) with Emma Pedreira; press columnist. All these are ways of writing.

In 2017 he joined the Real Academia Galega with the speech “Voces termando da paisaxe galega”. Although he has not yet traveled on the Trans-Siberian, nor has he crossed the Arctic on a sled, he hopes to do so someday.