Maite Carranza

Maite Carranza was born in Barcelona in 1958. She studied anthropology and worked as a teacher and TV screenwriter while also focusing on literature.

Her extensive career spans over 70 books many of them young adult novels, and her trilogy La Guerra de les Bruixes translated into over 30 languages (War of the Witches in English), has brought her international renown as well.

Her groundbreaking, socially engaged work – with titles such as Paraules emmetzinades (‘Poisoned words’) – has been recognised with several awards; including the Spanish National Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award, the Critics’ Award, the Cervantes Chico Award and the Edebé Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. This year, she was nominated for the 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the most prestigious international children’s and young adult literature award, as well as for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

She combines literature with screenwriting, talks and lectures, and she strives to defend authors’ rights. She also contributed to the animated feature film L’Olívia i el terratrèmol invisible, based on her novel La pel·lícula de la vida. The Catalan film received an award at the Festival d’Annecy 2025 and will première this autumn.