Rafael Argullol

Invitado de Honor

Rafael Argullol is the author of 37 books, including novels, essays and poetry collections. He has also taken part in various theatre and film projects. As a lecturer, he has taught at universities across Europe and the United States. A regular contributor to newspapers and magazines, he often weaves together his literary aesthetic and his experience as a traveller. He was awarded the Nadal Prize in 1993 for La razón del mal (The Reason of Evil), the Casa de América Essay Prize in 2002 for Una educación sensorial (A Sensory Education), the Cálamo and City of Barcelona Prizes in 2010 for Visión desde el fondo del mar (Vision from the Bottom of the Sea) and the Achtall Essay Observatory Prize in 2015. The Acantilado press is currently publishing his complete works, including the liber amicorum Rafael Argullol: caminar, pensar, escribir (Rafael Argullol: Walking, Thinking, Writing).

Other activities involving the participant:

Myths (to be developed)

Victoria Cirlot

Invitado de Honor

Victoria Cirlot is Professor of Romance Philology at the Faculty of Humanities at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.
Her research focuses on the Middle Ages, especially the culture of chivalry and mysticism. Her books on Arthurian romance and troubadour lyric poetry include Figuras del destino. Mitos y símbolos de la Europa medieval (Figures of Destiny. Myths and Symbols of Medieaval Europe) and ‘Tot es niens’. Ocho ensayos sobre literatura medieval (‘Everything Is Nothing’. Eight Essays on Mediaeval Literature) (San Millán de la Cogolla).
In the field of mediaeval mysticism, she has studied Hildegard von Bingen (Vida y visiones de Hildegard von Bingen [Life and Visions of Hildegard von Bingen], 1997–2006) and other women mystics, in collaboration with Blanca Garí, in La mirada interior. Escritoras místicas y visionarias en la Edad Media (The Inner Gaze. Women Mystics and Visionaries in the Middle Ages).
She has explored visionary experience through comparative studies of the Middle Ages and the twentieth century in works such as Hildegard von Bingen y la tradición visionaria de Occidente (Hildegard von Bingen and the Visionary Tradition of the West) and La visión abierta. Del mito del Grial al surrealismo (The Open Vision: From the Myth of the Grail to Surrealism).
Her most recent books include Grial. Poética y mito (siglos XII-XV) (Grail. Poetics and Myth (12th–15th Centuries)); El monasterio interior (The Inner Monastery) (with various contributors); Luces del Grial (Lights of the Grail); Imágenes negativas. Las nubes en la tradición mística y la modernidad (Negative Images. Clouds in Mystical Tradition and Modernity), Viña del Mar, Chile, Mundana, 2019; Visión en rojo. Abstracción e informalismo en El libro de las revelaciones de Juliana de Norwich (Vision in Red. Abstraction and Informalism in The Book of Revelations by Julian of Norwich); Ariadna abandonada. Friedrich Nietzsche trabaja en el mito (Ariadne Abandoned. Friedrich Nietzsche Works on the Myth) and Taüll. Liturgia y visión en los ábsides románicos catalanes (Taüll. Liturgy and Vision in the Romanesque Apses of Catalonia). She is currently working on her forthcoming book from Vaso Roto: Marginalia.
She was curator of the exhibition ‘Emotions. Images and Gestures from Past and Present’, held at the Museu Frederic Marès in Barcelona from 30/11/2023 to 26/05/2024 (with a catalogue of the same title).
 

Other activities involving the participant:

Female narratives

Elisabeth Riera

Invitado de Honor

Elisabet Riera (Barcelona, 1973) is the founder and editor in chief of the Wunderkammer publishing house. She is also the author of La línea del desierto (The Desert Line) (2011), Vidas gloriosas (Glorious Lives) (2014), Fresas silvestres para Miss Freud (Wild Strawberries for Miss Freud) (2016), Llum (Light) (2017), Efendi (Males Herbes, 2021), Una vegada va ser estiu la nit sencera (Once Upon a Time It Was Summer All Night Long) (2023) and Els alats (The Winged Ones) (2025), as well as several successful essays on cannabis culture. She lives and writes in a small village in the Alt Empordà. 

Other activities involving the participant:

Liternature

Miquel de Palol

Invitado de Honor

Though his background is in architecture, Miquel de Palol has made a name for himself in literature. He is the author of the poetry collections Delta (1973), Quan? (1979), Salamó (1981), El Porxo de les Mirades (1983), Indiferència (1986), El Sol i la Mort (1996), Nocturns (2002), Aire amb Cel de Fons (2012), Dos Cors per una Bèstia (2015), Alguns Paisatges (2018), Desdoblament (2020) and Dies Claríssims de Síria (2023); the novels El Jardí dels Set Crepuscles (1989), Ígur Neblí (1994), L’Àngel d’Hora en Hora (1995), El Legislador (1997), Consulta a Ripseu (1997), El Quincorn (1999), El Troiacord (2001), Un Home Vulgar (2006), El Testament d’Alcestis (2009), Què! (2018), Angèlica i Rafel (2019), Mònica Mir (2020), Copèrnic (2021) and Bootes (2023); the essays La Poesia en el Boudoir (2003), Dos Poetes (2006), Meditacions des de Catalunya (2011) and El Llac dels Signes (2013), and the book of sayings Els Proverbis (2003). He regularly contributes to various periodicals. Many of his books have been translated into several languages, and he has won a host of widely renowned literary prizes.

Other activities involving the participant:

Novel Architecture

Rafael Argullol

Invitado de Honor

Rafael Argullol is the author of 37 books, including novels, essays and poetry collections. He has also taken part in various theatre and film projects. As a lecturer, he has taught at universities across Europe and the United States. A regular contributor to newspapers and magazines, he often weaves together his literary aesthetic and his experience as a traveller. He was awarded the Nadal Prize in 1993 for La razón del mal (The Reason of Evil), the Casa de América Essay Prize in 2002 for Una educación sensorial (A Sensory Education), the Cálamo and City of Barcelona Prizes in 2010 for Visión desde el fondo del mar (Vision from the Bottom of the Sea) and the Achtall Essay Observatory Prize in 2015. The Acantilado press is currently publishing his complete works, including the liber amicorum Rafael Argullol: caminar, pensar, escribir (Rafael Argullol: Walking, Thinking, Writing).

Other activities involving the participant:

Argullol by Cirlot and Cirlot by Argullol