Francisco Darío Villanueva Prieto (born 5 June 1950) is a Spanish literary theorist and critic.

[2] Villanueva is also a professor of philology at the University of Santiago de Compostela,[1] where he specializes in literary theory and comparative literature.

Elected to the D seat of the Real Academia Española on 5 July 2007, Villanueva began his post on 8 June 2008.

After José Manuel Blecua stepped down as director, Villanueva was elected on 11 December 2014 (28 votes against 5).

He is married to María Ermitas Penas Varela, who is also a professor of Spanish Literature at the University of Santiago de Compostela.