Emilia Pardo Bazan y de la Rua-Figueroa (16 September 1851 - 12 May 1921), countess of Pardo Bazan, was a Spanish novelist, journalist, literary critic, poet, playwright, translator, editor and professor. She is known for introducing naturalism into Spanish literature, for her detailed descriptions of reality, and for her ground-breaking introduction of feminist ideas into the literature of her era. Her ideas about women’s rights for education also made her a prominent feminist figure. In 1876 she won a literary prize offered by the municipality of Oviedo, for an essay entitled Estudio critico de las obras del padre Feijoo (Critical Essay on the Works of Father Feijoo), the subject of her essay being a Benedictine monk.