Born in Oliva, Valencia in 1932.

After his baccalaureate studies at the Jesuit College in Valencia, he took a degree in Law in Deusto, Valencia and Salamanca where he graduated. He later studied Philosophy and Literature at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

For two years he taught Spanish literature at Oxford University.

He was able to combine his creative side with teaching and researching the Spanish language.

Brines is a member of the “Generación del 50” along with Jaime Gil de Biedma, José Ángel Valente, Ángel González, Claudio Rodríguez, and José Caballero Bonald.

A Poet and University Professor, he belonged to the second generation of post-war poets, he is a poet worried by man representing inconformity before the world and scepticism which separates him from social poetry. His poetic work is a consolidation of personal poetry, the temporal themes of which focus on the return to the intimate, the nostalgic evocation of infancy, love, and eroticism, and metaphysical worry.

His literary work is of great quality as shown by the prizes won throughout his life.

The following works must be highlighted:

In 1960 he wrote Las Brasas (The Embers), a book which deserved the Adonais Prize for poetry. In 1965 he published some historic/narrative poems Materia narrativa inexacta (Inexact narrative material).

In 1966 his reflective book Palabras a la oscuridad (Words to the darkness), earned him the Critic’s Prize.

In 1967 he was awarded the Valencian Literature Prize and the Pablo Iglesias Prize.

In 1971 he wrote Aún no (Not yet) which opened new paths driving towards a metaphysical vision captured in his book Insistencias en Luzbel (Lucifer’s Insistences) in 1977.

In 1986 he published El otoño de las rosas (The autumn of roses), National Poetry Prize.

For his book La última costa (The last coast), written in 1995, he won the Fastenrath Prize.

In 1999 he published his complete poetic work inspired by the reflection of time, life, and death. This work, Poesía Completa 1970-1997. Ensayo de una despedida (Complete Poetry 1970-1997. Practice for a farewell), earned him the National Spanish Literature Prize where the Ministry of Culture recognised his entire career.

On 12 January 2001 he was named Honorary Citizen of Oliva where Elca can be found, the 19th century ancestral home surrounded by orange trees which served as an inspiration for many of his poems.

From 16 January- 2 February 2001 the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia via the Vice-chancellorship of Culture, made a sculpture based on his poetic texts at the Exhibition Centre.

On 19 April 2001 he was appointed Academic of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language occupying the seat marked with the letter X, which lay vacant following the death of the playwright Antonio Buero Vallejo. The candidacy was presented by Francisco Nieva, Ángel González, and Antonio Colino.

On 26 May 2001 organised by the Excellent Council of Oliva and the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, he inaugurated an exhibition in Oliva's Santa María la Mayor Crypt entitled “Miradas desde Elca (Views from Elca), sculptural iconography on the poetry of Francisco Brines.

His poetic work is a consolidation of personal poetry, the themes of which focus on the return to the intimate, the nostalgic evocation of infancy, love and eroticism, friendship, and daily life. He is a poet who rejects the prosaic nature of social poets and searches for personal language. Francisco Brines is a poet who “builds his work on solid and immovable ground and his creative process is a loyal insistence of the same idea” as said Alejandro Duque in the prologue of Antología Poética Espejo Ciego (The Blind Mirror Collection of Poems) of the Els Quatre Vents collection published by the Valencian Ministry of Culture.