Elena Medel was the first woman ever to win the prestigious Francisco Umbral Prize for her debut novel, The Wonders, which was also longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2023 and has been translated into fifteen languages. She is the recipient of the XXVI Loewe Prize for Young Poets and the Leonardo-BBVA Foundation 2021 grant, and a writer-in-residence at Cheuse Center and MALBA. Medel is also the publisher of the poetry imprint La Bella Varsovia, one of the most prestigious in the Spanish-speaking world, which she founded at 19. She currently lives in Madrid.