Carmen Frías was born in Alicante on 20th November 1942. She graduated with distinction in Political Sciences and Economics from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, winning the National Prize. Her cum laude doctoral thesis on the Church and the Spanish Second Republic, published by the Universidad Complutense and, in an abridged version, by the Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales under the title Iglesia y Constitución (Church and Constitution), has received critical acclaim as an essay. She taught for several years in the Faculty of Political Sciences and then joined the Civil Service, where she has held positions of responsibility and focussed on research and teaching. Ora pro nobis is her second novel and her first to be published.; it was awarded the Premio Azorín in 2009.