MANUEL RICO (SPAIN)

MANUEL RICO (Madrid, 1952) is a poet, novelist, and literary critic. He holds a degree in Journalism from the Complutense University of Madrid and has contributed to numerous literary and cultural publications. He currently oversees literary criticism for the digital newspaper Nueva Tribuna and the poetry section of El País.

He is the author of several poetry collections, including La densidad de los espejos (1997), Donde nunca hubo ángeles (2003), Fugitiva ciudad (2012), Los días extraños (2015), and Cuaderno de historia (2021), as well as the novels Verano (2008) and Un extraño viajero (2016). He has also published essays, diaries, and travel writing. His essay collection La ficción y la vida appeared in 2024. A selection of his poetry, translated into Romanian by Dinu Flămând, was published under the title De luz y transparencia (Bucharest, 2025).

Rico has received numerous literary distinctions, including the Juan Ramón Jiménez Hispano-American Poetry Prize (1997), the Miguel Hernández International Poetry Prize (2012), and several awards for fiction. In 2025, he received the Opera Omnia Award for his lifetime contribution to poetry at the Târgu Jiu Literature Festival in Romania.

Since 2015, he has served as President of the Collegiate Association of Writers of Spain.