People like María Dueñas

María Dueñas Vinuesa (1964) is a Spanish writer and professor.

María Dueñas Vinuesa was born in Puertollano in 1964. She earned a licentiate degree in English Philology from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) in 1987 and a Master of Arts in Romance and Classical Languages from Michigan State University (MSU) in 1989. She moved to Cartagena in the 1990s. While preparing for her doctoral degree, she worked as teacher at the Military Base of Los Alcázares. She earned a position as senior lecturer at the University of Murcia, where she worked for around two decades. She earned her PhD in English Philology from the University of Murcia in 1997.

Dueñas came into the spotlight in 2009, achieving great success in Spain thanks to her first novel, El tiempo entre costuras, published in English as The Time in Between, and The Seamstress, a historical espionage novel, which sold more than a million copies. It has already been translated into more than 25 different languages. The novel also won a number of literary awards such as the Historical Novel Award from the City of Cartagena, the top prize at this annual week-long celebration of the historical novel, and the 2011 Culture Award for Literature. It was adapted for television as a same-titled series, produced by the Spanish television network Antena 3. El tiempo entre costuras revolves around the figure of Sira Quiroga, a seamstress who moves to Morocco with her boyfriend right before the uprising that would lead to the Spanish Civil War. There, after many setbacks, she will open her own sewing workshop.