La forja de una escritora: los cinco inviernos de Olga Merino en Rusia
Abstract
This article offers a study of Spanish writer Olga Merino’s (1965) autobiographical work, Cinco inviernos (Five Winters, 2022), which is an adaptation of the ‘Russian notebooks’ that she wrote during her time as a correspondent in Moscow (1993‑98). Russia stands as a geographical and emotional space for the young journalist to acquire knowledge, and the notebooks emerge as Merino’s physical representation of her own formation as a writer. Merino captures her life experiences, reflects on political issues, rewrites her critical comments on literature, as well as on other disciplines and arts (e.g. journalism, linguistics, translation, music, cinema), and discusses the strategies she adopts to write. Her five winters in Russia manifest themselves as a process of self‑learning that would initiate her into the writing of her first novel (Cenizas rojas [Red Ashes], 1999) and the development of other stories.
Submitted: Sept. 18, 2025 | Accepted: Sept. 29, 2025 | Published Dec. 15, 2025 | Language: es
Keywords Russia • Creative writing • Cinco inviernos, Cenizas rojas • Self-learning • Russian literature • Olga Merino
Copyright © 2025 Victoria Ríos Castaño. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/979-12-5742-006-2/005