Maria Vilanova i Vila-Abadal (Barcelona, 1952) is a novelist, essayist, and translator.

With a PhD in Philosophy and Sciences of Education from the University of Barcelona (UB) and a degree in English Philology, also from the UB, she began her career as a writer in 1999 with the publication of Un agost a Rwanda, a work that draws on her experience with educational projects in Rwanda. She then published the novels London is London (2013); El món per un forat, winner of the 2014 Manlleu Prize for Fiction; Cendra viva (2015); Entre dos fills (2016 – in the true crime genre); Anaïs sota les voltes (2018); and Les casetes del Catbrèxit o l'emancipació de la senyora Rosa, winner of the 2020 Armand Quintana de Calldetenes Prize. She has also published several stories, some of which have won awards, and also the play Secundina i acció! (2020), which continues the adventures of some of the characters from her short story collection Petites històries al replà de l'escala (2014).

As an essayist, she published Dramatització i Aprenentatge (2002) a didactic guide of theatre in education and, in 2005, La mort, una lliçó de vida?, a reflection on personal mourning. In 2021, she received the Es Mercadal i Fornells (Menorca) Research Award for her study Enric Enrich Coll, el capellà de Fornells, which was published by the Institute of Menorcan Studies in 2024. In 2023, she was a finalist for the Andrés Casasnovas Award for Journalism given by the newspaper Menorca for her article "Tot recordant Enric Enrich Coll, el rector de Fornells".

In addition to her facet as a writer, she is an actress and English and drama teacher. She has spoken in congresses and published articles in specialised journals on education, theatre, and English teaching.

She is a member of the Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (AELC – Association of Catalan Language Writers).

Web page Bet Ajenjo for AELC.
Documentation and photograph: Author's personal files.
Translation: Julie Wark.