Who is Xavier Aliaga, the most awarded pen in contemporary Valencian literature?

Xavier Aliaga was born in Madrid on 10 April 1970, because of his father's job as a railway worker. He grew up in Xàtiva, in Valencia province. He earned a degree in Catalan philology from the Universitat de València. He started out at the local paper Notícia-7 in Xàtiva, which he went on to edit. Between 1997 and 2007, he handled communications for the parliamentary groups of Esquerra Unida, Entesa and then Compromís.

His honours include the Vila de Lloseta Prize 2005 ("Si no ho dic, rebente"), the Andròmina Prize 2008 ("Els neons de Sodoma"), the Joanot Martorell Prize 2011 and the Critics' Prize 2012 ("Vides desafinades"), the Critics' Prize 2014 ("El meu nom no és Irina"), the Pin i Soler Prize 2017, and the Critics' Prize 2018 ("Les quatre vides de l'oncle Antoine").

He has been a member of the Consell Valencià de Cultura since 16 November 2021, and of the IVAM's advisory board since 30 June 2023. He writes regularly for El Temps, including an interview published on 14 January 2026.

Photo credit: photo by Ana Sebastià / Institució Alfons el Magnànim (2016), CC BY-SA 3.0 licence, Wikimedia Commons.