Elvira Lindo

Elvira Lindo is a Spanish journalist and writer.

At the age of 12 Lindo moved to Madrid, where she studied journalism. She did not get her degree, as she began to work in television and radio as a speaker, actress and scriptwriter. Her first novel was based on one of her fictional radio characters, the madrileño boy Manolito Gafotas, who has become a classic of Spanish children's literature. Manolito is the son of a trucker and lives a humble life in the working-class quarter of Carabanchel. The character was the protagonist of several first-person novels written with a solid style that includes humour, irony and sharp social criticism.

Lindo has also written adult novels and plays; she is the screenwriter of the film La primera noche de mi vida, and collaborated with director Miguel Albadalejo on the screenplays for Manolito Gafotas and Ataque verbal. She also adapted the screenplay Plenilunio from the novel by her husband, Antonio Muñoz Molina.

Ever since her husband Muñoz Molina was appointed director of the Instituto Cervantes of New York, Lindo has lived in New York City. She often writes for the Spanish-language newspaper El País, contributing editorials, and writes freelance work for other magazines and newspapers.

In 1998 Lindo was awarded the Premio Nacional de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil (National Award for Children's and Youth Literature) for her book Los trapos sucios de Manolito Gafotas, and she received the Biblioteca Breve (Tiny Library) Award for her adult novel Una palabra tuya.