Ledicia Costas

Ledicia Costas studied at Vigo University. The recorded working language is Galician. The field of work recorded is children's and young adult literature and Galician-language literature. Places of work recorded in the authority are Galicia. Distinctions recorded are Spanish National Children and Youth Literature Award, Lazarillo Award and Laxeiro award.

Even as a child, Costas wanted to become a writer. After graduating from high school, she studied law at the University of Vigo and worked as a lawyer for three years after earning her degree. At the same time, she was active as a writer of children’s and young adult books. In 2000, at the age of 21, she published her first work, Unha estrela no vento (in English, A Star in the Wind). After achieving success with additional works, she gave up her law practice to devote herself entirely to writing. Costas was married to children’s and young adult author Miguel Ángel López González. He died in November 2023 at the age of 47 following a sudden heart attack. The couple had several daughters. Ledicia Costas lives in Vigo. Ledicia Costas is the author of numerous books. In 2015, she won the National Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature for her work “Escarlatina, a cociñeira defunta” (in English: Scarlatina, the Deceased Cook). According to the jury, it is a humorous and groundbreaking work in the context of contemporary children’s and young adult literature, distinguished by its accessibility, its biting humor, and its ability to demystify the world of death. [3] The book has been translated into numerous languages, including Spanish, Catalan, English, Korean, Bulgarian, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese, and Persian. Since 2015, Ledicia Costas has also been writing books for adults.

• The book Ultraluz, which can be read as the journey of Ledicia as a child toward her transformation into an artist, won the Galician PEN Club Award in 2022 for its Galician-language edition, and it brings together many of the recurring themes in Ledicia’s literary work: horror, death, and childhood. • In 2023 Ultraluz was performed as a scenic production that blended poetry, through the voice of Ledicia Costas and music by Amaro Ferreiro and Sergio Martínez in Vigo, Galicia.

Ledicia Costas is recorded as having received Spanish National Children and Youth Literature Award, Lazarillo Award and Laxeiro award. Recognition and collections. Costas received Spanish National Children and Youth Literature Award, Lazarillo Award, Antón Losada Diéguez Prize for literary creation, Laxeiro award, Castelao Medal and Premio El Barco de Vapor.

• Her first book for adults, An animal chamado néboa (English: An Animal Called Mist), was published in Galician in 2015 and in English in 2017 under the title An Animal Called Mist. It contains six short stories set around the time of the Second World War. She blends fiction and historical fact to explore themes of human cruelty during wartime. For this work, she received the Losada Diéguez Prize for Literary Creation in 2016. • In 2019, she published her first novel for adults, Infamia (engl.: Shame), which was inspired by the murder of Marta del Castillo in 2009. The novel’s main character is Emma Cruz, a lawyer and law professor who travels to a fictional town in Galicia to investigate the disappearance of two sisters. The 2009 case caused a stir beyond Spain’s borders. Since the perpetrator confessed, he was convicted of murder, even though Marta’s body was never found. The case influenced Spanish criminal law,[8] and the media attention culminated in 2021 with the Netflix miniseries Where Is Marta? So far this book is available in Galician, Catalan and German. • In 2021, she published the novel Golpes de luz, a sensitive and humorous novel about the secrets in the lives of three generations in rural Galicia. Drug trafficking in Galicia in the 1990s, caring for loved ones, and the search for the truth form the backdrop of this story. So far the book is available in its original language Galician and a translation by the author into Catalan. • In 2024, she published Piel de cordero, the story of two women who are bound together for two centuries by the magical and unstoppable power of witchcraft. In the first part, Catalina—who belongs to a line of witches dating back to the final years of the Inquisition—grows up in Merlo in a doctor’s office where patients with a wide variety of ailments are treated. In the second part, Lola, a 21st-century woman in the midst of a crisis, comes into contact with forces she does not understand. So far the book is available in its original language Galician and a translation by the author into Castilian.

In 2024, she published a book titled Siete dientes de León (Spanish) or Sete dentes de león (Galician) in collaboration with illustrator David Sierra.

Together with the Catalan author Pere Tobarula Martínez, Ledicia Costas wrote the following children’s books under the pen name Pereledi, all of which were illustrated by Andrés Meixide: • Desaparizión (Galician, 2011) and Desaparissió (Catalan, 2012) • Mortos de Ningures (Galician, 2011) • Letras de xeo (Galician, 2012) • Ouro Negro (Galician, 2013)