[Storytelling in Alden Biesen, Belgium, in April 2023]
[Update in 2026]
UNIVERSITY
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Hispanic Philology (1994–98, University of Alcalá de Henares) and in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature (1999–2001, Complutense University of Madrid), and a diploma in Social Work (1991–1994, Pontifical University of Comillas). He has undertaken a number of further training courses on topics such as creativity, sex education, theatre as an educational resource, etc.
In the academic sphere, he spent four years working on the first critical edition of Borges’ complete works whilst holding a research fellowship (1998–2002, University of Alcalá) and spent a year as a research fellow at the CENUAH Library.
ORAL STORYTELLING
He has been a professional storyteller since 1994, telling stories to children, young people and adults. He has performed throughout Spain (at virtually every major storytelling event) and also in other countries in the Americas (Mexico, Peru, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay), Africa (Morocco, Equatorial Guinea and Tunisia) and Europe (Portugal, Greece, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Latvia).
He has been a member of the Guadalajara (Spain) Seminar on Children and Young Adults' Literature and was involved in organising the Guadalajara Storytelling Marathon between 1994 and 2006. He has also been involved in organising other major events related to storytelling (such as the 'De viva voz' cycle at the National Library of Spain).
He has published a study on the professionalisation of storytelling in Spain (further information) and on the role of the storyteller (further information).
He is a founding member of AEDA, the association of storytelling professionals in Spain (narracionoral.es). Within this association, he has been involved for several years in producing the annual magazine 'El Aedo', in monthly newsletters, in organising the summer school, etc.
TRAINING
He runs courses and workshops on storytelling and traditional tales, as well as literary and creative writing workshops; he organises activities to encourage reading; he writes specialist articles, delivers courses and gives lectures… at universities, schools, teacher training centres, conferences, congresses, seminars, libraries, cultural centres, etc.
Between 2018 and 2024, he coordinated the summer course organised annually by the UNED in Guadalajara on storytelling and traditional tales. This course was led by Marina Sanfilippo (further information).
Since 2018, he has been coordinating the Children and Young Adults' Literature Seminar in La Puebla de Alfindén (further information). Previously, between 2004 and 2008, he co-organised the Villaviciosa de Odón Seminar on Children and Young Adults' Literature with Teresa Sorozábal (2004–2008).
In 2020, together with other colleagues, he founded the online training platform DeVivaVoz.org, which specialises in storytelling courses.
AUTHOR
He has published 30 books (some available in English), mostly collections of short stories, for all ages (see all titles via this link) and has won international picture book awards for two of them.
He has also published opinion pieces, interviews and so on in various specialist journals (further information), some of them in Englis (further information).
PUBLISHER
Since January 2005, he has been running the publishing house Palabras del Candil, which specialises in publishing books and short stories by professional storytellers, with over 60 books published (for further information, see www.palabrasdelcandil.com).
FOLK TALES
He began collecting traditional tales in 2002. Since March 2023, he has been actively involved in the recording and preservation of traditional tales, including all the material collected in the University of Jaén’s Corpus of Oral Literature (tales available here).
Since 2021, he has been actively involved in the editing and publication of volumes of theTypological Catalogue of Hispanic Folk Tales.
MEDIA AND SOCIAL MEDIA
He is a regular press contributor (he wrote a weekly short story for 'El Decano de Guadalajara' between 1994 and 2010) and it is worth noting his work on the radio (Onda Cero Guadalajara, SER Guadalajara, SER Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla-La Mancha Media). Between 2019 and 2025, he told a short story every week on Spanish National Radio (further information).
In 2018, he was one of the creators of the Iberoamérica de cuento podcast, a monthly or fortnightly programme running from that year until the summer of 2025 (further information).
In August 2020 he launched a Telegram channel dedicated to storytelling which, since the outset, has featured at least one post per day (further information).
He maintains his www.pepbruno.com website and his tierraoral.com blog. His also a member of the AEDA Web and eMedia Commission and one of thore responsible for the (www.narracionoral.es) website.
EXHIBITIONS
En 2024 he curated the "Julio Camarena or a fascination for the traditional tale" exhibition in the Castilla-La Mancha Regional Library, in the Alcázar in Toledo.
En 1999 he took part in the creation and organisation of the exhibition: ‘Borges, a labyrinth of wisdom’, at the Casa de la Cultura in Azuqueca de Henares (Guadalajara).
CITATIONS AND AWARDS
In 2026 he recieved the XXXVI "García Matos" research prize granted by the Extremaduran Folklore Federation for his work on traditional Extremaduran tales..
In 2022 Castilla-La Mancha regional Government awarded him the Cultural Merit Medal.
In 2019 the Cabanillas del Campo (Guadalajara) town hall presented him with a plaque in recognition of his first 25 yearas a storyteller. 25 year celebration.
In 2010, together with Mariona Cabassa, he won the III edition of the Compostela International Picturebook Competition organised by the Kalandraka publishing house, with La familia C
In 2009, together with Lucie Müllerová, he won the IV Island Library-Cabildo Gran Canaria"International Picturebook Competition organised by the Edelvives publishing house with Un loro en mi granja
