"[4] Her early education was in her home town, and at the age of nine, she continued her studies in León, at the Colegio de la Asunción.

From then, she continued to publish poetry, short stories, poetic prose, novels, and children's literature.

Her first three novels, La oscuridad somos nosotros (1976), Ácidos días (1979), and Gente oscura (1980), received, respectively, the City of Irún, Novelas y Cuentos, and Miguel Delibes Awards.

[15] It is the subject of the doctoral thesis by Muriel Taján, with the title Mythe personnel et écriture dans l'oeovre d'Elena Santiago, Évolutions et involutions d'une quête de l'absante (2009).

[16] Taján also authored the prologue to the novel Nunca el ovido, which Santiago published in 2015, after a gap of six years.

She participated with 15 other authors in the project Contemos la Navidad, an anthology of stories and Christmas illustrations in homage to Antonio Pereira [es], which is published annually.