Rebecca Pawel was born and raised in New York City. A summer spent studying in Madrid cemented a life-long love of Spain, and laid the foundation for a major in Spanish Language and Literature at Columbia University. Pawel has published four novels set in the immediate aftermath of the Spanish Civil War with Soho Press. These books begin with DEATH OF A NATIONALIST (2003) which won an Edgar® for best first novel by an American author.
DEATH OF A NATIONALIST was followed by LAW OF RETURN(2004), THE WATCHER IN THE PINE(2005) and THE SUMMER SNOW, which was listed as one of Publisher's Weekly's best mysteries of 2006. After teaching in public high schools in New York for more than a dozen years, Pawel returned to Columbia and earned a PhD in English and Comparative Literature, which gave her the opportunity to spend a year living in Madrid as a Fulbright scholar, and inspired a few more novels.
She currently teaches at the University of Bridgeport, and her first non-fiction book, SPAIN IN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN IMAGINATION, will be published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2027.
DEATH OF A NATIONALIST was followed by LAW OF RETURN(2004), THE WATCHER IN THE PINE(2005) and THE SUMMER SNOW, which was listed as one of Publisher's Weekly's best mysteries of 2006. After teaching in public high schools in New York for more than a dozen years, Pawel returned to Columbia and earned a PhD in English and Comparative Literature, which gave her the opportunity to spend a year living in Madrid as a Fulbright scholar, and inspired a few more novels.
She currently teaches at the University of Bridgeport, and her first non-fiction book, SPAIN IN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN IMAGINATION, will be published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2027.
