Ólvega (Soria), 27 de noviembre de 1936 - Granada, 23 de noviembre de 2015.

Manuel Villar Raso Professor of American Literature at the University of Granada, Spain, is also an essayist and novelist. The subject which fascinates his imagination is violence; in his first novels he maintains that Spain is a violent country, and he writes in order to understand it for himself as well as to show his discoveries to his countrymen. Villar Raso´s first novel was "Mar ligeramente sur" (Destino,1976) (Nadal Prize finalist 1975), it is about love, expressed as an experience of violence and brutality. "Hacia el corazón de mi país"(Destino, 1977) deals with an outlaw, who fights for survival. "Una Republica sin Republicanos", whose theme is the Spanish civil War and the impossibility of an understanding. It was first published in Albia,1977. "La Pastora, el Maqui Hermafrodita" (Albia,1978) was another outlaw, a ‘maquis’ - woman or man? The novel tries to solve that riddle. "Comandos Vascos" (Noguer, 1980) deals with terrorism, trying to understand who terrorists are, and what they want. "El Laberinto de los Impios" (Noguer, 1981), which Villar Raso considers to be one of his best works, deals with who he is in relation to the world, and in relation to eternal questions such as God. "Las Españas Perdidas"(Sevilla: Edit. Andaluzas Unidas, l983) deals with the expelled moriscos who at the end of the sixteenth century crossed the Sahara desert and placed their capital in Timbuctu. "Ultimos Paraisos" (Barcelona. Planeta, 1986) is the story of a tender love affair,and also of death. "El Ultimo Conquistador" (Barcelona. Noguer/Caralt, l992) deals with the last Spanish Conquistador who visioned the conquest of California for Spain "Donde Rien las Arenas"(Sevilla. Anaya/Algaida, 1994) deals again with Africa and the painful situation of women." El color de los sueños" (Barcelona, Planeta, 1999) is Africa again, the story of a painter who like Gauguin and Barcelo leaves Spain to discover the painting of the twentieth-first century."La mujer de burkina" premio Casino de Mieres (2001), "La casa del corazón" (2001), "Encuentros en Marbella" (2001), "La larga noche de Ángela" (2004),"Ser mujer en África" (2005) "Africa en silencio" (2005).

Between the novels he writes essays, mainly about experimental American novels. He is fascinated by Nathanael West´s sensibility, and believes it to be similar to his own, and of the time in which we live. His essays have appeared in such literary magazines as "Camp de `L’Arpa", "Hora de Poesía" and several newspapers..