A great way to improve your Spanish is to read books in Spanish. That way you’re not only practising your reading skills but you’re also learning about Spanish culture through literature. The Spanish speaking world not includes Spain but also the whole continent of South America. Reading opens a window into lives that we would otherwise have no access to and to worlds that we could only have dreamed of.

This means that reading Spanish literature opens you up to that whole world, and of course you’re improving your Spanish at the same time. Whether you’re learning to improve your Spanish or you just want to read fiction by Spanish authors then you can read our list of our favourite Spanish authors below.

Before you start looking into these authors, check out how to improve your Spanish reading comprehension here.

Our list is broken down into General Fiction, Poetry and Graded Readers so you can skip to the section that interests you the most.

General Fiction

Our first and probably most popular category is general fiction. Below we have a list of some of the most influential Spanish authors in the history of literature. Some you may have heard of and other may be completely new to you. You may even have some recommendations that you think we’ve missed off the list, which we would be happy to read if you just leave your favourite Spanish author in the comments below.

Gabriel García Márquez

Type of Spanish: Colombian

One of the most famous Spanish writers of all time is the Colombian born Gabriel García Márquez. Márquez was born in 1927 in Colombia but died in Mexico. He is probably most famous for One Hundred Years of Solitude, but has written other classics like Love in the Time of Cholera and the General’s Labyrinth.

He was so popular in Latin America that he helped facilitate negotiations between the guerrillas and the government in Colombia and he was even friends with Fidel Castro from Cuba. It’s safe to say that his life was just as exciting as his books.

Miguel de Cervantes

Type of Spanish: European

The other most famous Spanish writer of all time is Miguel de Cervantes, who wrote the infamous ‘Don Quixote.’ Don Quixote is the most translated book after the Bible in the world.

Miguel de Cervantes was born in Madrid in the 1500’s and was alive during Shakespeare’s time and just as famous within Spain as Shakespeare was within England.

Lopa de Vega

Type of Spanish: European

Lopa de Vega was another famous Spanish novelist and playwright from the same time as Miguel de Cervantes. Vega was just as dramatic as his works and after a love affair gone wrong, he found himself exiled due to his vicious attacks on the woman who had rejected him.

Javier Marías

Type of Spanish: European

Javier Marías is a more contemporary Spanish author who is also a columnist and a translator. He was born in Madrid in 1951 and has had his work translated into 42 different languages.

His work includes Los dominios del lobo, Corazón tan blanco and Así empieza lo malo among others.

Poets

Our next category is poets. Although poetry is not as popular as it once was in the world of literature, there is no denying that it’s been incredibly useful to the evolution of the written world, and therefore it’s worth looking at the great Spanish poets as well as the great English poets.

Pablo Neruda

Type of Spanish: Chilean

A slightly more contemporary writer than some of the others mentioned here so far. Poet, Pablo Neruda was born in 1904.

Just like many of the great writers of the years, Pablo’s life outside of his work was just as exciting as inside his writing. He spent time in the Spanish Civil War where he was politicised dramatically and became so left wing as to be a Stalin sympathiser, and there’s even speculation over the possibility that he was poisoned on the commands of Pinochet himself.

Regardless of where he stood politically, his contribution to poetry was unquestionable, and he received a Noble Prize for Literature in 1971.

Graded Readers

Our last category looks at a new type of fiction that hasn’t been around as long as the previously mentioned categories. Graded readers are fast becoming a new type of fiction as more and more people want to learn languages, and as this is a language site, we have to include our favourite Spanish graded reader authors as well. If you’ve encountered other Spanish graded reader authors that you’ve found useful and you would want to recommend to other learners then please let us know in the comments below so we can check them out.

Ana Martín

Type of Spanish: European

Ana Martín is an author who has dedicated her life so far to language learning and writing. She speaks French, Spanish and English but writes predominantly in Spanish. Her books are designed specifically to help people learn languages.

Ana loves learning languages and believes that language learning should be fun and accessible for everyone. Having lost herself in the world of fiction as a child, she decided that there was no better way for her to help other people to learn languages than to write works of fiction that could help people lose themselves as they learn.

Check out Ana Martín’s books here

Final thoughts

We hope you’re enjoyed our list of our favourite Spanish authors. If you’re new to Spanish fiction then be sure to give one a go. You just might want to start off with something a bite more manageable than Don Quixote.

You may have noticed that our list of favourite Spanish authors includes a lot of authors from longer ago and don’t include so many contemporary figures. If you have any contemporary Spanish authors that you think are worth a mention then please let us know in the comments below.

Who are your favourite Spanish authors? Please tell us so we can check them out.