Álvaro Pombo

{{Infobox person

| honorific-prefix = The Most Excellent

| image = Alvaropombo.jpg

| birth_name = Álvaro Pombo García de los Ríos

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1939|6|23|df=y}}

| birth_place = Santander, Spain

| module = {{Infobox officeholder

| embed = yes

| office = Seat j of the Real Academia Española

| term_start = 20 June 2004{{efn|Elected on 19 December 2002}}

| term_end =

| predecessor = Pedro Laín Entralgo

| successor =

}}

Álvaro Pombo García de los Ríos (born 23 June 1939) is a Spanish poet, novelist and activist.

Life and career

Born in Santander, Cantabria, he studied at the Complutense University of Madrid and received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London, where he lived between 1966 and 1977. His first book of poetry, Protocolos, was published in 1973, and four years later he won the El Bardo prize for his 1977 Variaciones. Returning to Spain that year, he published a collection of short stories, Relatos sobre la falta de sustancia, many of which contained homosexual characters and themes.

Pombo was elected to seat j of the Real Academia Española on 19 December 2002, he took up his seat on 20 June 2004.{{cite web|author= |url=http://www.rae.es/academicos/alvaro-pombo |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140719212813/http://www.rae.es/academicos/alvaro-pombo |title=Álvaro Pombo |language=Spanish |publisher=Real Academia Española |date= |archive-date=19 July 2014 |accessdate=14 April 2016}}

Prizes and awards

In October 2006, Pombo was awarded the Premio Planeta literary prize for his novel La fortuna de Matilda Turpin.
In 2012 he was awarded the Premio Nadal for his novel El temblor del héroe.
In November 2024, Pombo was awarded the Miguel de Cervantes Prize for his “extraordinary creative personality, his unique lyrics and his original narration”.{{Cite news |last=Fanjul |first=Sergio C. |last2=Amat |first2=Jordi |date=Nov 12, 2024 |title=El escritor español Álvaro Pombo gana el Premio Cervantes 2024 |url=https://elpais.com/cultura/2024-11-12/el-escritor-espanol-alvaro-pombo-gana-el-premio-cervantes.html |work=El País}}