José Manuel Caballero Bonald studied Nautical Studies in Cádiz and Philosophy and Literature at the University of Seville, completing his studies at the University of Madrid.
He was secretary and deputy editor of the magazine Papeles de Son Armadans, collaborating with Cela.
In 1959, he moved to Bogotá, where he was a professor of Spanish Literature and Humanities at the National University of Colombia for four years. He later went to Cuba and later traveled to several European countries. From 1971 to 1975, he collaborated again with Cela at the Lexicography Seminar of the Royal Spanish Academy; he then taught Contemporary Spanish Literature for another four years at the Center for Hispanic Studies at Bryn Mawr College.
Since then, he has continued traveling around the world and pursuing his literary career. Throughout his career, he received numerous awards, including the Critics' Prize in 1963, 1974, and 1977, the Ateneo de Sevilla Prize in 1981, the National Prize for Spanish Literature in 2005, and the National Poetry Prize the following year.
