Colm Tóibín

Colm Tóibín is one of the most prominent literary figures in the English-speaking world. His work spans novels, short stories, essays, theatre and literary criticism. He has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize and has received prestigious awards including the IMPAC and the E.M. Forster Award. His work has been translated into over thirty languages.
In Catalan, Amsterdam has published Brooklyn (2010), The Testament of Mary (2014), Nora Webster (2016), House of Names (2017), Mothers and Sons (2019), The Magician (2022), A Long Winter (2023) and Long Island (2024).
The Irish author’s Homage to Barcelona was first published in 1990 and reissued in 2025 in a co-edition by Barcelona City Council and Ara Llibres. It has also been published in Spanish for the first time.
 

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Tribute to Mercé Rodoreda. The most universal Catalan author

Mercè Ibarz

Invitado de Honor

Mercè Ibarz, born in Zaidín in 1954, is a storyteller, cultural critic, essayist and researcher. She is the author of La terra retirada (1993) and La palmera de blat (1995), which together with Labor inacabada make up the Tríptic de la terra trilogy (2020): ‘If there was any doubt that Mercè Ibarz is one of the greats of contemporary Catalan literature, a pioneer in so many ways, it will be laid to rest immediately with Tríptic de la terra.’ (Andreu Gomila, Time Out); ‘Ibarz is brilliant and, here, she shows it more than ever, because it is not the story that dominates, but rather the characters and the experience.’ (David Castillo, La República). She also published the short story collections A la ciutat en obres (2002) and Febre de carrer (2005), which have now been compiled in Contes urbans: ‘In Mercè Ibarz’s stories, real experience is transfigured, like images from dreams.’ (Julià Guillamon, La Vanguardia), No parlis de mi quan me’n vagi (2010), Vine com estàs (2013), L’amic de la Finca Roja (2017) and Retrat de Mercè Rodoreda (2022). In 2023, she won the Career Award thanks to the pioneering nature of her work, characterised by a fusion of genres and disciplines. Her most recent book is No pensis, mira.

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Tribute to Mercé Rodoreda. The most universal Catalan author
The other side of the essay

Paulina Flores

Paulina Flores (Santiago, Chile, 1988) es licenciada en Literatura Hispánica por la Universidad de Chile y tiene un máster en Escritura Creativa por la Universidad Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona. Su primer libro, un conjunto de nueve relatos publicados bajo el título Qué vergüenza (Hueders, Santiago, 2015; Seix Barral, Barcelona, 2016), fue traducido a múltiples idiomas y seleccionado como uno de los diez mejores libros por El País. La obra obtuvo el Premio Roberto Bolaño, el Premio del Círculo de Críticos, el Premio Municipal de Literatura y en 2019 el Bauer Giovanni, en Venecia.

Es autora también de la novela Isla Decepción (Seix Barral, 2021), con la que obtuvo el Premio LINC al mejor libro del año en la categoría de ficción, y fue traducida al inglés, japonés y holandés, entre otros idiomas. Ha sido profesora y conductora del podcast Confieso que he leído; realiza charlas y talleres sobre procesos creativos de escritura, y colabora como columnista en El País.

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Bolaño's transatlantic heritage
Presentation of Babelia

Juan Pablo Villalobos

Juan Pablo Villalobos has lived in Barcelona since 2003. All of his novels have been published by Anagrama and translated into more than fifteen languages: They include Down the Rabbit Hole (And Other Stories), described as ‘Funny, convincing, appalling’ by Ali Smith, and ‘a superb fable with a cruelly happy ending that reads like an initiation novel fizzing with carbonation’ by Laura Fernández; Quesadillas, praised as ‘a work that plays with notions of magic realism. But it is Villalobos’s quirky, laconic style that most impresses and marks him out as a writer of distinction’ (Lucy Popescu, The Independent); I’ll Sell You a Dog, acclaimed as ‘one of the most ingenious, playful and enjoyable books published in Spanish in a long time’ (Alberto Manguel); I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me (Herralde Prize, 2016), lauded because ‘the author’s intelligence prevails… a hugely valuable literary proposition’ (Francisco Solano, El País); Invasion of the Spirit People, called ‘very entertaining, as agile as a happy walker, a celebration of friendship, of hope’ (Nadal Suau, El Mundo); Peluquería y letras (Hairdressing and Letters), described as ‘a novel about a domestic epic, about banal gestures that interlock to form an intense, personal family tableau full of absurd, at times surreal, scenes’ (Ricardo Baixeras, El Periódico); ‘as if Buster Keaton finally tried to hint at a smile. A novel without conflict, about happiness’ (Daniel Fermín, Zenda); and El pasado anda atrás de nosotros (The Past Walks Behind Us). He has also published the non‑fiction book The Other Side, described as ‘a harrowing chronicle of Central American migration to the US… Outstanding’ (Luisgé Martín).

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Conference in four movements: a brief history of Latin American literature in Barcelona
What's up with Catalan?