Skip to Global Dialogues Full Site Menu Skip to main content
Georgetown University Logo

Global Dialogues Logo

Edurne Portella headshot

Edurne Portella

Edurne Portella is a writer and historian whose work addresses violence, memory, and uprooting. She made her debut as a novelist in 2017 with Mejor la ausencia (Better the Absence), which won the 2018 Madrid Booksellers’ Guild Prize. This was followed in 2019 by Formas de estar lejos (Ways to Be Away), and in 2021 by Los ojos cerrados (Closed Eyes), which received the 2022 Basque Prize for Literature. Her most recent book is Maddi y las fronteras (Maddi and the Borders) was published in 2023. Portela is also a documentary filmmaker and writes regularly for prominent Spanish outlets, including El País. For many years she was a lecturer in Literature at the Lehigh University, Pennsylvania.