Gabriel Janer Manila was born in Algaida, Mallorca, in 1940. He is a writer and has an Arts degree and a doctorate in Education from the University of Barcelona and is professor of Anthropology of Education at the Balearic Islands University.

In 1967 he made his debut as a writer with L'abisme (The Abyss), which received the City of Palma Prize for the Novel. He has continued to write uninterruptedly since then, with such notable titles as Els alicorns (The Unicorns), winner of the 1971 Josep Pla Prize, Els rius de Babilònia (The Rivers of Babylon), which received the 1984 Sant Joan Prize for the Novel, Els jardins incendiats (The Gardens Burnt, 1997), winner of the Carlemany Prize for the Novel, and El perfum dels cedres (The Scent of Cedars, 2002), which was awarded the Nèstor Luján Prize for the Historic Novel. He has also written books of essays, for example Cultura popular i ecologia del llenguatge (Popular Culture and the Ecology of Language), winner of the 1981 Josep Pallach Prize, and is engaged in research in the field of Anthropology of Education. His doctoral thesis, La problemàtica educativa dels infants selvàtics: el cas de Marcos (The Educational Dilemma of Feral Children: the Case of Marcos, 1979) and the subsequent L'infant selvàtic de Sierra Morena (The Feral Child of Sierra Moreno, 1999) are key works in his line of research. He has written a number of books for children including El rei Gaspar (King Gaspar), winner of the 1975 Josep M. Folch i Torres Prize, Tot quant veus és el mar (All You See is the Sea), winner of the Generalitat (Government) of Catalonia Prize for the Best Children's Book to be published in 1987 and also of the 1988 Ministry of Culture National Prize for Children's Literature, Els rius de la lluna (The Rivers of the Moon), winner of the 1989 Ala Delta Prize, Recorda't dels dinosaures, Anna Maria (Remember the Dinosaurs, Anna Maria), winner of the 1991 Edebé Prize, Han cremat el mar, de bell nou (They Have Just Burned the Sea Again) winner of the 1994 Ministry of Culture National Prize for Children's Literature, El terror de la nit (The Terror of the Night), Columna-Jove prize-winner in 1995, and Daniel i les bruixes salvatges (Daniel and the Wild Witches), winner of the 2002 Ciutat d'Alzira Prize. He has twice been nominated Spanish candidate for the Hans Christian Anderson Award for Children's Literature (1988 and 1994).

He is a honorary member of Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (AELC, Association of Catalan Language Writers).



Web page: X. R. Trigo for AELC, with the support of the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes (Institute of Catalan Letters)
Documentation: Caterina Valriu and Xulio Ricardo Trigo.
Up-date: Nausica Solà.
Photographs: author's personal files.
Translation: Julie Wark.