Born in Manacor in 1946, resident in Barcelona since 1969, and married to the writer Jaume Fuster, Maria Antònia Oliver is a novelist. She has written for Perlas y Cuevas and Lluc, in Mallorca, and Tele-estel, El Correo Catalán, Canigó, Serra d'Or, El Temps, Diari de Barcelona, El País, Avui, etc.

Considered to be one of the leading lights of the 1970s literary generation (O. Martí Olivella 1998), Oliver stands out for her genre writing, especially the detective novel. Significant in this regard are both her individual production – Estudi en lila [Study in Lilac] (1986), Antípodes [Antipodes] (1988), El sol que fa l'ànec [The Sun the Duck Makes] (1994), etc. – and her contributions as a member of the Ofèlia Dracs collective.

Her fiction, which gives particular prominence to her women characters, consists of some fifteen thematically and formally varied works. It covers themes ranging from changes taking place in Mallorcan society with a significant basis of traditional stories and fantastic elements – Cròniques d'un mig estiu [Chronicles of Half a Summer] (1970) and El vaixell d'iràs i no tornaràs [The Boat of You'll-Go-But-Won't-Come-Back] (1976) – through to a re-elaboration of formulas along pulp fiction lines such as those that feed into Joana E. (1992), for which she was awarded the Prudenci Bertrana Prize.

The author enjoys considerable public recognition. Her books have been translated into other languages and, for example, her novel Crineres de foc [Manes of Fire] was a finalist for the 1984 Sant Jordi (Saint George) Prize, while Amor de cans [Dog Love] (1995) was awarded the Llorenç Vilallonga City of Palma Prize for the Novel.

She has also written film scripts, plays, children's books, literary essays (essentially prologues and introductions) and has also translated (her version of Moby Dick received the Catalan Literature Prize of the Generalitat (Catalan Government) of Catalonia in 1985.
 

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