Ana Merino (Madrid 1971) is an author who has spent more than twenty years living in the United States. Professor of Cultural Studies and of Creative Writing in Spanish at the University of Iowa, she started the MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish program in 2011 and was its director until December of 2018. In the United States, she has been a pioneer in Hispanic Studies and in developing academic approaches to the comic, while at the same time curating four exhibitions and publishing a number of specialized essays.

She has served as an op-ed contributor to El País, a member of the Executive Committee for the International Comic Art Forum (IACF), a member of the Board of Directors for the Center of Cartoon Studies (CCS), and as a member of the Executive Board of Iowa City Unesco City of Literature. She is currently a member of the Executive Board of Iowa City’s Riverside Theater.

She has published nine volumes of poetry, including Preparativos para un viaje, winner of the Adonáis Poetry Prize 1994, several works of theater and a number of books for younger readers, including the novel El hombre con dos corazones (Anaya, 2009). Her other poetry books include Hagamos caso al tigre (Anaya, 2010), El viaje del vikingo soñador (Santillana, 2016), and Salvemos al elefante (Santillada, 2017).

In 2020 she won the Nadal Novel Award with El mapa de los afectos (Destino, 2020), her first adult novel. She has also published Amigo (Destino, 2022) and El camino que no elegimos (Destino, 2025), a story about second chances.