Carmen Martínez Pineda was born in Murcia in 1976 and studied journalism at the Complutense University, graduating in 1999. She spent five years working as a journalist for regional publications, such as 'La Verdad' in Murcia and the Valencian edition of 'El País', during which time she also worked towards her literary ambitions. She soon realised that journalism was not her vocation and switched her focus to teaching. She studied literary theory and comparative literature (at the Complutense University, Madrid), a course which she combined with her postgraduate studies in the history of social communication. In 2016 she was awarded a doctorate from the Complutense University with a thesis on press censorship during the Second Spanish Republic, research funded by a grant from the Congreso de los Diputados (the lower house of the Spanish parliament).