Since the publication of her first works in the early 1960s, Spanish writer Clara Janes (1940-) has produced more than fifty works of literature, spanning genres, languages, and even media. She has published more than thirty books of poetry, seven novels, four book-length essays, two memoirs, several biographies, and numerous works of short fiction. She regularly contributes essays and commentary to major Spanish newspapers and participates actively in the online literary journal Adamar: Revista de creacion. Additionally a photographer, musician, translator, and literary critic, at center Janes is a multifaceted creator; she is one of the most important Spanish artists and intellectuals of our times. As sign of her importance, she was inaugurated into the Spanish Royal Academy in 2015, one of only ten 10 women members to this day. Unlike many writers of her generation, however, in her work Janes has not tended to focus primarily on the turbulent Spanish political scene of the twentieth century. She has focuses instead on universal issues such as the nature of women's writing and female expression in particular. In doing so, she has consistently looked outside her country of origin, to the rest of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. She has won international awards for her outward-looking work, reflected in To Keep the House and Shut One's Mouth.
