Alana S. Portero | |
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| Born | 1978 (age 47–48) |
| Alma mater | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid |
| Notable work | Bad Habit (La mala costumbre) |
Alana S. Portero (Madrid, 1978) is a Spanish writer, poet, playwright and stage director. She writes about culture, feminism and LGBT activism, with a special focus on trans women. [1]
Portero was born and grew up in a working class neighbourhood of Madrid. [2] [3] She completed her studies in History at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), [4] with a specialisation in Medieval History.
She cofounded STRIGA, a stage company where she used to be a playwright and an actress. [5] Nowadays she collaborates with several Spanish publishers, [6] such as the magazine Agente Provocador, ElDiario.es , El Salto , SModa and Vogue España, [7] as well as on her own Patreon page.
Portero wrote several collections of poems: La habitación de las ahogadas (2017); [8] La próxima tormenta (2014); [9] Irredento (2011); [10] Fantasmas (2010). [11] She also has written the stage play Música silenciosa (2008). [12] She has also collaborated in a number of collections of selected works such as La revuelta del pueblo cucaracha (2013), El descrédito (2013), Mundo Subterráneo (2015), Alcasseriana (2016), Vidas Trans (2019) or Asalto a Oz (2019). [13]
La mala costumbre (Bad Habit) is her first novel. Told in the voice of a girl trapped within the body of a boy, Bad Habit is a story of coming-of-age in working class Madrid. [14] The novel was successfully presented at 2023's Frankfurt's Book Fair. It will be translated into eleven languages [15] [16] such as English, French and German. [17]
In 2023 she was given an award by the Spanish Ministry of Equality for giving visibility to trans women through all her work. [21]