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?

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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Benvinguts: arriving in Barcelona
Presentation of Babelia

Eduard Olesti

Invitado de Honor

Eduard Olesti was born in 1995 in Barcelona. He has published the poetry collections Sarcop and Un cowboy crepuscular (A Crepuscular Cowboy). He has worked in theatre – as a playwright and director – and in other areas of the arts and culture. Gossos dempeus (Dogs Standing) is his first novel.

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Barcelona today: a transformation

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).

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Barcelona today: a transformation
Barcelona opens the curtain!

Jordi Soler

Jordi Soler was born in 1963 in La Portuguesa, Veracruz, Mexico. He is the author of two poetry collections and a dozen narrative works, which have been translated into several languages. He now lives in Barcelona, the city his family once fled after the Spanish Civil War. He is a knight of the Irish Order of the Finnegans. His works include Bocafloja (Loose Mouth), La mujer que tenía los pies feos (The Woman Who Had Ugly Feet), Los rojos de ultramar (The Reds from Overseas), La última hora del último día (The Last Hour of the Last Day), Diles que son cadáveres (Tell Them They’re Corpses), La fiesta del oso (The Bear’s Festival), Ese príncipe que fui (The Prince I Was), El cuerpo eléctrico (The Electric Body), Usos rudimentarios de la selva (Rudimentary Uses of the Jungle), Los hijos del volcán (The Sons of the Volcano), En el reino del toro sagrado (In the Realm of the Sacred Bull) and Y uno se cree (And One Believes).

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.

Other activities involving the participant:

Benvinguts: arriving in Barcelona
Bolaño's transatlantic heritage