Writer and critic of children's and young people's fiction, born in Zamora in 1953, although he has lived in the Basque Country since he was a child, where he has been intellectually educated.
He has dedicated his personal and professional life to the experience of literature, having published some thirty books. Literature for children and young people has been the most cultivated area, the true passion of this pedagogue and initiator in the profession of reading, as an adventure never imagined and always profitable. He is a secondary school teacher in Bilbao and participated in the early days in the "Poetas por su pueblo" collective, promoters of the Zurgai magazine - of whose editorial board he has been a member since 1999 - of which he has been a contributor, along with the Donostia-based magazines Kurpil and Kantil, among other periodicals.
He has published several books of stories for young people, in different languages, and has written essays on the meaning and history of literature of this kind. In 1988 he published the study La literatura infantil vasca ( University of Deusto-Mensajero, 1988), on Basque children's literature (Haur literatura euskaraz, Instituto Labayru, 1994). In 1981 he received the "Ignacio Aldecoa" prize for short stories in Vitoria-Gasteiz. He has also been awarded, among other short story competitions, the "Gabriel Aresti" (Bilbao, 1991) and the "Reading is living", in 1997.
In 1994 he published his novel Los ayunos de la reina Esther. He has also contributed to literary magazines such as Reseña, Diálogos, CLIJ and Peonza, especially on issues related to children's and young people's literature.
As a literature teacher, he has made a special effort in his teaching programmes to encourage creativity among his students. The result of this experience are his essays such as Lecturas animadas, Todo está en los cuentos and Ipuinen tailerra, a set of experiences and proposals for teachers and students to work in the classroom in a fun way and rehearsing creation.
He has also participated in the critical edition of many classic books of literature, as well as traditional tales from the most diverse cultures. His is the anthology of popular Basque legends Basajaun, the lord of the forest, or Stories of piracy, Classic Christmas stories and Tales of the train. Calleja is also the author of an edition of the Romancero and traditional lyric poetry. He has also published an edition of tales by the Brothers Grimm and other popular tales and legends from Africa, Russia and Latin America, as well as another volume of gypsy tales. He is the author of the literary appendices of classic works and authors published in the Espasa Juvenil collection: Hoffmann, Irving, Afanasiev, Verne... He is also the coordinator of the Klasikoen Kutxa collection of the Basque publishing house Elkarlanean, from which works by Kipling, Verne, Wilde, among other classic authors, are disseminated in Basque... Most of his books have been published in both Basque and Spanish.
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