Xavier Bosch

Invitado de Honor

Xavier Bosch, born in Barcelona in 1967, burst onto the literary scene 15 years ago with Se sabrà tot. He followed it up with Algú com tu, which earned him international renown. Translated into ten languages, his novels, including Nosaltres dos (2017), La dona de la seva vida (2021) and 32 de març (2023), have brought him countless successes and reached the top of the sales charts in Catalan. Xavier Bosch has been recognised with the Sant Jordi and Ramon Llull awards. Diagonal Manhattan is his tenth novel.
An established journalist, he has created hit audiovisual formats for radio and television: Alguna Pregunta Més?, El món a RAC1 and El gran dictat. He directed the classical music documentaries La fleur and Revolutionary Quartet: l’enigma Gerhard and is a member of the Institute of Catalan Studies. He currently writes for Ara and Mundo Deportivo.

Marta Buchaca

Invitado de Honor

Playwright, director and screenwriter. Her most recent works include Kramig (Espai Texas, 2025), Quant de temps em queda? (Teatre Goya, 2022), Rita (La Villarroel, 2022; Centre Cultural Fernán Gómez, 2021, and Sala Beckett, 2019), Playoff, which premièred in February 2018 at the Conde Duque Theatre in Madrid with La Joven Compañía, and Només una vegada, which premièred at the Festival Grec 2018 and the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya.
 Some of her other noteworthy plays are Les nenes no haurien de jugar a futbol (Festival Grec and Versus Teatre, 2009, and Teatros del Canal, 2014), Losers (La Villarroel, 2014, and Teatro Bellas Artes, 2015) and Plastilina (Sala Beckett, 2009). Her family plays, meanwhile, include an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and La nit dels malsons, for the Auditori de Barcelona’s Cantània project. 
She has received a host of literary awards, most notably the Max Award for best writing in Catalan and the City of Alcoy Award.
Her screenplays include Fenómenas and El juego de las llaves, as well as the adaptations of her plays Només una vegada, Litus and Les nenes no haurien de jugar a futbol. 

She has also published a novel, Sis mesos d’hivern (Ed. Navona).

Other activities involving the participant:

Barcelona opens the curtain!

Sergi Belbel

Invitado de Honor

Sergi Belbel is an author, translator and theatre director. 
His written works include Minim.mal Show (authored with Miquel Górriz, 1986), Elsa Scnheider (1989), Tàlem (1990), Carícies (1991), Després de la pluja (1993), Morir (1994), La sang (1998), El temps de Planck (2000), Forasters (2004), Mòbil (2005), A la Toscana (2007), Fora de joc (2010), Les roses de la vida (2017), Si no t’hagués conegut (2018), Angle mort (2020), co-written with Roc Esquius, Hamlet.01 (2022), Lali Symon (2023) and Hamlet.02 (2024). Most of these pieces have been seen in countries across Europe and America and, in some cases, on other continents.
He has directed plays by Benet i Jornet, Guimerà, Shakespeare, Molière, Racine, Goldoni, Calderón, J.B. Priestley, Mamet, Jardiel and more. Some of his pieces have been adapted to the silver screen by Ventura Pons (Carícies, Morir o no, Forasters) and Agustí Villaronga (Després de la pluja, a film for television). Belbel co-wrote the script for the films Eva, by Kike Maíllo (2011), and Stella Cadente (2014) and Love me not (2018), directed by Lluís Miñarro.
His accolades include the National Catalan Literature Award (1993–95), the Ministry of Culture’s National Dramatic Literature Award (1996), the Government of Catalonia’s National Theatre Award (2000), the Max Award for international reach (2002) and the City of Barcelona Award (2003).
In December 2021, he won the Sant Jordi Award for novels with Morir-ne disset (Proa), his first foray into prose fiction. In 2024, he published his second novel: Acte de fe (Proa).

Other activities involving the participant:

Of families, happy and unhappy in their own way

Victoria Szpunberg

Invitado de Honor

Victoria Szpunberg is a playwright, director and dramaturgy teacher. She was invited to the Royal Court Theatre International Residency in 2000 with her first play.
Since then, her works have premièred at numerous national and international festivals and theatres. Her plays have been translated into more than ten languages. Alongside her career as a writer, she has partnered with various choreographers, developed dramaturgies, directed and adapted plays and written pieces for radio and sound installations. She has also taken part in theatre and education projects. In 2013, she received the Max Prize for Catalan Playwriting. In 2019, she was playwright-in-residence at Sala Beckett with the play Amor mundi (Festival Grec 2019) and won the VII SGAE Laboratory Fellowship to write Tu hija (Your Daughter). In 2022, she premièred the opera libretto La gata perduda (The Lost Cat) (Gran Teatro del Liceo, winner of the Serra d’Or Prize, Max Prize, Teatre Barcelona Prize, among others), and that same year also premièred El peso de un cuerpo (The Weight of a Body) (TNC and CDN). In 2023, she premièred her play Mal de coraçon (Heartache) (Cia Solitària, TNC), and in 2024 L’imperatiu categòric (The Categorical Imperative) (Teatre Lliure 2024–2025), a work that received the City of Barcelona Prize, the Butaca Prize, the Time Out Award for Best Creator of the Year and the Critics’ Prize for Best Text, among others. This year she has premièred Vulcano (Volcano) (CDN) and La tercera fuga (The Third Escape) (Sala Gran, TNC).

Other activities involving the participant:

Barcelona today: a transformation
Presentation of Babelia

Marta Buchaca

Invitado de Honor

Playwright, director and screenwriter. Her most recent works include Kramig (Espai Texas, 2025), Quant de temps em queda? (Teatre Goya, 2022), Rita (La Villarroel, 2022; Centre Cultural Fernán Gómez, 2021, and Sala Beckett, 2019), Playoff, which premièred in February 2018 at the Conde Duque Theatre in Madrid with La Joven Compañía, and Només una vegada, which premièred at the Festival Grec 2018 and the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya.
 Some of her other noteworthy plays are Les nenes no haurien de jugar a futbol (Festival Grec and Versus Teatre, 2009, and Teatros del Canal, 2014), Losers (La Villarroel, 2014, and Teatro Bellas Artes, 2015) and Plastilina (Sala Beckett, 2009). Her family plays, meanwhile, include an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and La nit dels malsons, for the Auditori de Barcelona’s Cantània project. 
She has received a host of literary awards, most notably the Max Award for best writing in Catalan and the City of Alcoy Award.
Her screenplays include Fenómenas and El juego de las llaves, as well as the adaptations of her plays Només una vegada, Litus and Les nenes no haurien de jugar a futbol. 

She has also published a novel, Sis mesos d’hivern (Ed. Navona).

Other activities involving the participant:

Writing about love (and heartbreak)

Josep Maria Miró

Invitado de Honor

Author of The Monster (2023, XXXII Jardiel Poncela Prize / XVIII Quim Masó Prize), Me, Trans (2023, VII Teatre Barcelona Prize – Local Musical Show), Remains of the Glowing Night (2021), La Majordoma (The Lady Butler) (2020), The Nicest Body Ever Seen Around These Parts (2020, National Prize for Dramatic Literature 2022 / XLV Born Prize / XXV Critics’ Prize), The White Room (2020), Temps salvatge (Wild Times) (2017, XXII Max Prize for Authorship), Olvidémonos de ser turistas (Let’s Forget about Being Tourists) (2017), Cúbit (Ulna) (2016), La travessia (The Passage) (2015, Frederic Roda Prize – XLV Night of Catalan Literature), Obac (Shady) (2014), Estripar la terra (Tearing Up the Earth) (2013,
Autor Exprés Prize), Fum (Smoke) (2012), Nerium Park (2012, Jaume Vidal i Alcover Prize / VI Quim Masó Prize), El principi d’Arquimedes (Archimedes’ Principle) (2011, XXXVI Born Prize), Gang Bang (2010, Project T6 Teatre Nacional de Catalunya), La dona que perdia tots els avions (The Woman Who Always Missed Her Flight) (2009, XXXIV Born Prize 2009) and stage adaptations such as Sicalíptiques (2024), Reis del món (Kings of the World) (2023), Els homes i els dies (The Men and the Days) (2022), L’amic retrobat (The Recovered Friend) (2019), Neus Català (2015), Esperança dinamita (Dynamite Hope) (2015) and Com si entrés en una pàtria (As If I Entered a Homeland) (2010). His work has been translated into more than twenty languages and has done over one hundred premières worldwide. He is currently working on the final monologue in the Tríptic de l’epifania (Triptych of the Epiphany), a new original text for the 2026–2027 season, and an adaptation of Eloy Moreno’s novel Invisible for the company La Joven. Next year will see the first English-language première of one of his plays off-Broadway in New York.

Other activities involving the participant:

Barcelona today: a transformation