The Prado and LOEWE FOUNDATION announce Helen Oyeyemi and Mathias Énard as writers-in-residence for the third edition of “Writing the Prado”

The 2025 edition of “Writing the Prado” will feature authors Helen Oyeyemi and Mathias Énard. Oyeyemi will be in residence in the summer, followed by Énard in the autumn. The programme invites internationally renowned writers to engage with The Prado’s collections and its rich history as a source of inspiration for literary creation.

This joint initiative between the Prado Museum and the LOEWE FOUNDATION, in collaboration with Granta en español, is a residency programme that invites internationally-renowned writers to the Prado with the aim of inspiring literary creation. In 2025, the programme will feature Helen Oyeyemi, a prominent British writer born in Nigeria whose work has been translated into 14 languages and is known for her lyrical prose and experimental approach, and French writer Mathias Énard, who was awarded the prestigious Goncourt Prize for his novel Compass (2015).

Launched in 2024, the “Writing the Prado” collection which is published by the museum and with Valerie Mills as literary editor, presents works of fiction inspired by the museum, written by authors after completing their residencies. The first titles in the series were The Museum Guard by

J.M. Coetzee and The Spirit Level by Chloe Aridjis. Later this year, new works by Olga Tokarczuk and John Banville, residents of the programme’s second edition, will be added to the series.

Helen Oyeyemi and Mathias Énard, will relocate to Madrid, making the Prado the centre of their activity and contemplation. At the end of this creative process, they will both produce a literary reflection exploring the links between fiction and the visual arts, to be published as part of the museum’s collection. During their residencies, both authors will also take part in a series of public talks.

Helen Oyeyemi (Nigeria, 1984) is a British writer currently based in Prague. Known for the originality and depth of her work, she has established herself as a distinctive voice in contemporary literature. Her writing has been translated into 14 languages.

Since her debut, Oyeyemi has been recognised for her innovative and experimental narrative style. She is the author of eleven novels, including Gingerbread (2019), Parasol Against the Axe (2024) and most recently, A New New Me (2025).

She is the recipient of the Somerset Maugham Award and the PEN Open Book Award among others, and her novel Peaces (2021) was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize.

Mathias Énard (France, 1972) studied Arabic and Persian and spent extended periods in the Middle East until 2000, when he settled Barcelona. He has contributed to various cultural magazines, including the now-defunct Lateral and is a member of the editorial board of Inculte magazine in Paris. He was appointed writer-in-residence at the prestigious French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici in 2005. Énard has also taught Arabic at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

He is the author of La Perfection du tir (2003), Remonter l’Orénoque (2005), Bréviaire des artificiers (2007), L’alcool et la nostalgie (2011), Zone (2014), Street of Thieves (2015), Compass (2017), Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants (2018), and The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild (2024).

Énard has received numerous awards, including the Prix des Cinq Continents de la Francophonie (2004), the Prix Décembre, the Prix du Livre Inter, the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens (2010), and the Prix Goncourt (2015) for Compass.