The Barcelona writer Cristina Fernández Cubas wins the Cervantes prize 2026

BarcelonaThe "unmistakable and original voice", the "creative freedom", the "constant dialogue with Latin American works of the literature of the strange" and the "opening of paths for new generations of narrators" are four of the main reasons that Ernest Urtasun, Spanish Minister of Culture and Sports, gave this Tuesday evening on behalf of the jury for awarding Cristina Fernández Cubas the 2026 Cervantes Prize, endowed with 125,000 euros and intended for works in the Spanish language. Born in Arenys de Mar in 1945 and living in Barcelona for decades, Fernández Cubas has been one of the pioneering storytellers when it comes to including supernatural and inexplicable elements in her literary world, which began to unfold in 1980 with the publication of an iconic collection of stories, Mi hermana Elba, at Tusquets, where she has released the entirety of her work.

"When in 2023 they called me to notify me that I had just won the National Prize for Literature, I thought they had made a mistake because I already had it, but the one who was wrong was me, because what they had given me a few years earlier was the National Narrative Prize," she acknowledged with a smile in 2025, shortly after publishing her latest book of short stories, Lo que no se ve (Tusquets). What will she do now, when she knows that the Cervantes jury has decided to award her the most prestigious prize in Hispanic letters? She will probably let out one of her histrionic laughs to gain some time. It will not be until a few days, or perhaps weeks from now, when she has been able to digest the news, that Cristina Fernández Cubas will continue working on the novel she has in mind: "It's a strange science fiction thing, one of those that only I might be interested in writing".

An author captivated by darkness

Fernández Cubas is the third Catalan author to receive the Cervantes Prize in the last decade, preceded by Joan Margarit (2019) and Eduardo Mendoza (2016). "My first contact with literature was oral –she explained in 2016 in her Eixample apartment, shortly after winning the National Narrative Prize for La habitación de Nona (Tusquets)—. There were the nanny's stories and my brother's. It was he who explained The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe, to me. My brother slept in a room that was like a ship's cabin. If my sisters and I, who were younger, got sick, they let us stay there. We would take the opportunity to read his books, which were for adults.".

Two of the spaces where Cristina Fernández Cubas's literature has grown have been the family and intimacy. "From the first book I clearly saw that the ideal format for the stories I wanted to tell was the short story," she asserted in 2025. "This was at a time when it was a little-practiced genre and only had prestige in Anglo-Saxon and Latin American countries." After Mi hermana Elba she has published collections of stories such as Los altillos de Brumal (1983), El ángulo del horror (1990), Con Agatha en Estambul (1993), and Parientes pobres del diablo (2006). She has also written novels such as El año de Gracia (1985), El columpio (1995), and La puerta entreabierta (2013), the latter published under the pseudonym Fernanda Kubbs, her first and only foray into the noir genre. "I love exploring the relationships between two characters that sometimes get confused," the writer admits. "And I have always been attracted to the dark side of things, the shadows, what remains hidden." Although she usually sets her stories in closed spaces, Cristina Fernández Cubas's imagination moves forward unstoppably and without limits. Il Buco, one of the stories included in Lo que no se ve, started from a dream to end up talking about a place where the protagonist was "revealed all the wisdom of the Universe".

Endowed with 125,000 euros, the Cervantes Prize is one of the most prestigious in the Spanish language, and recognizes the career of an author who, "thanks to the body of their work, has contributed to enriching the Hispanic literary legacy." Since 1976, the list of winners of the award has featured authors such as Rafael Alberti, María Zambrano, Miguel Delibes, Antonio Gamoneda, and Ana María Matute. In the last four editions, the winners of the Cervantes Prize were Rafael Cadenas (2022), Luis Mateo Díez (2023), Álvaro Pombo (2024) and Gonzalo Celorio (2025).