As well as being an industrial machinery inspector, Agustín Fernández Paz was a teacher and has a degree in educational sciences. He worked as a teacher for more than thirty years, in primary and secondary education. Alongside his teaching career, he also developed a range of theoretical and informative activities, centred on themes such as the introduction of communication media in the classroom, reading promotion, the promotion of the Galician language in a bilingual context or the teaching of the language. He had a significant role in the creation of language and literature teaching materials (one of his works, Canles 5, received the Emilia Pardo Bazán National Award for non-sexist textbooks).
Agustín Fernández Paz’s books have received numerous prizes, in both the Galician and Spanish fields (Lazarillo, Edebé Juvenil, Barco de Vapor, Merlín, Protagonista Jove, Edebé Infantil, Rañolas, Raíña Lupa, Martiño Sarmiento, Xosé Neira Vilas, among others). He has twice been recognised as the best author of the year (in 2004, by the Galician Booksellers Federation and, in 2007, by the Galician Association of Publishers). On two occasions, he also received the prize for best children´s book of the year, awarded by the Association of Galician Language Writers. In 2008, his book O único que queda é o amor (Nothing Really Matters in Life More Than Love) received the National Children´s and Young Adults´ Literature Award, awarded by the Spanish Ministry for Culture.
In the international field his four nominations for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013) stand out. O único que queda é o amor was included on the IBBY Honour List in 2010, as were Contos por palabras (‘Stories for Words’) in 1992 and Aire Negro (‘Black Air’) in 2002.
