Adrià Targa

Invitado de Honor

Adrià Targa spent his childhood and adolescence between this city and the Sant Pere i Sant Pau neighbourhood, which features in the long poem Acròpolis (Acropolis). He studied classical philology at the University of Barcelona while also organising cultural activities at the now-closed Ramon Llull student residence. At 21 he published his first book of poems, L’exili de Constança (The Exile of Constança) (2008), inspired by Ovid’s imagined exile. This was followed by Boques en calma (Calm Mouths), Ícar (Icarus) (2015) – available in full online via the digital magazine Stroligut – the pamphlet Liorna (2015), Canviar de cel (Changing Sky) (2021), Acròpolis (Acropolis) (2024) and Arnau (2024), the latter a novel in verse exploring the final day in the life of a thirty-year-old man haunted by the ghosts of depression, sex, drugs and poetry. He has received major awards including the Gabriel Ferrater Prize in Sant Cugat, the Vicent Andrés Estellés Prize in Burjassot, the Barcelona Jocs Florals for Acròpolis and most recently the Catalan Poetry Critics’ Prize for Arnau, a work described by the jury as ‘a visionary work that has stirred readers of Catalan poetry and drawn the attention of critics, who have acknowledged its singular importance for an entire generation.’

Other activities involving the participant:

The Poetry Room

Anna Pazos

Invitado de Honor

Writer and documentary filmmaker. She has produced several short documentaries and non‑fiction podcasts and contributed articles and reports to El País, La Vanguardia, Jacobin and Le Monde Diplomatique, among other media. She lived in Jerusalem between 2014 and 2015, where she wrote for Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In 2017, she received a Fulbright scholarship to pursue postgraduate studies at New York University. While in New York, she worked as a fact‑checker for the New York Times Syndicate and as an editor and producer for the BBC. In 2020, she released her first autobiographical short film with BBC Reel, The Circle: A Story of Love, Waves and the Arms Trade, based on her experience living on a boat with the son of an arms dealer. Since May 2020, she has co‑presented the podcast Les Golfes.

Other activities involving the participant:

Literature by the ear

Sira Abenoza

Doctora en filosofía y directora de La Casa dels Clàssics. Más allá de su compromiso con la difusión universal de los clásicos, es fundadora y directora del Institute for Socratic Dialogue, una fundación que impulsa el diálogo socrático como herramienta de inclusión y promoción de la justicia. Su trabajo puede verse reflejado en los documentales Filosofia a la presó (premio Seminci al Mejor Documental, 2015), sobre el curso de diálogo socrático que imparte en las cárceles catalanas, e In dialogue, que refleja una mesa de diálogo entre exterroristas en Irlanda del Norte. Ha sido consultora de RSC y sostenibilidad en sectores como la banca, la energía y la agroalimentación durante quince años, y ha impulsado proyectos de emprendimiento social en Centroamérica. Actualmente, es profesora del Departamento de Sociedad, Política y Sostenibilidad de ESADE, investigadora del Instituto de Innovación Social y directora del Programa Vicens Vives. Colabora con Núvol y elDiario.es, y es autora de publicaciones como No consentiràs pensaments impurs (Fragmenta, 2024) y Consejo de familia: el órgano que sostiene el salto generacional (Harvard Deusto Business Review, 2025).
 

Other activities involving the participant:

Literature and democratic resistence: debate or combat (Foreign Action of Generalitat)

Gabriel Ventura

Es poeta, aunque su trabajo se expande hacia otras disciplinas, como la performance o el cine. Entre sus últimas publicaciones destacan W (2017), Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls (2020) (poemario que ha dado título a una exposición en el MACBA). Ha recibido la beca Montserrat Roig y ha realizado estancias en residencias literarias como la Residència Finestres. Sus obras se han presentado en festivales y espacios como Fundació Brossa, Museo Tàpies, Festival Eñe, Festival Veu, Barcelona Poesia, entre otros. Sus poemas se han traducido al inglés, francés, griego, neerlandés, turco y portugués. Actualmente es profesor en BAU (Barcelona).

Bel Olid

Invitado de Honor

Bel Olid (Mataró, 1977) is a writer and translator, as well as the coordinator of the Catalan Studies programme at the University of Chicago, where they teach language and literature.
Their work, which engages with contemporary debates on gender, identity and sexuality, has been translated into several languages. In September they will publish the essay La mare incompleta (The Incomplete Mother), which explores the hidden costs of assisted reproduction.
 

Other activities involving the participant:

Feminist gaze and male guilt
From where one writes
Bodies in transit: writing the self beyond labels

Maria Carme Roca

Invitado de Honor

Maria Carme Roca (Barcelona, 1955) is a Catalan historian and philologist, and one of the country’s most widely read authors. After twelve years as a teacher, she has devoted herself exclusively to writing since 1997. She has published over seventy books, aimed at both children and young people as well as adults. Her work spans short stories, essays and novels, with a particular focus on historical fiction, including titles such as El pont de fusta (The Wooden Bridge) (2004), Bàrcino (2009) and L’enigma Colom (The Columbus Enigma) (2014). Her essays include Les dones de Jaume I (The Wives of James I) (2008) and Abadesses i priores a la Catalunya medieval (Abbesses and Prioresses in Medieval Catalonia) (2014).
Over the course of her career she has received numerous awards, including the Lola Anglada Prize for On s’amaga la por (Where Fear Hides) (2002), the Nèstor Luján Prize for Historical Fiction for Intrigues de palau (Palace Intrigues) (2006), the Joaquim Ruyra Prize for Katalepsis (2012), the Illa dels Llibres Prize for A punt d’estrena (Ready for Première) (2016), awarded by popular vote, the Barcanova Prize for Young People’s Literature for Selfies al cementiri (Selfies in the Cemetery) (2017) and the Prudenci Bertrana Girona Literary Prize for the novel El far (The Lighthouse) (2018). In 2025 she won the Santa Eulàlia Prize with El passatge (The Passage), adding yet another accolade to her distinguished record. Alongside writing, she regularly takes part in school reader forums, library discussions and literary walking tours based on her novels. 
 

Other activities involving the participant:

The secret Barcelona
Enigma and betrayal: Reconstructing history

Núria Cadenes

Invitado de Honor

Núria Cadenes is a writer and journalist and has worked as a bookseller. She has been living in the Valencian Country for 25 years. She has written a dozen books, including non-fiction and novels, and short stories for various anthologies. The documentary novel Guillem, won her the Lletra d’Or Award and the València Negra Award for the best novel. Tiberi Cèsar was a finalist for the Finestres and Llibreter Awards, among other prizes.
This year, she published En carn i ossos with Ara Llibres.
 

Other activities involving the participant:

Girls that broke the mold. The legacy of Catalan women writers
Contemporary Catalan literature at a glance

Álvaro Colomer

Invitado de Honor

Writer and journalist. He is the author of a trilogy on the death of the city – La calle de los suicidios (Suicide Street) (Círculo de Lectores, 2000), Mimodrama de una ciudad muerta (Mimodrama of a Dead City) (Siruela, 2004) and Los bosques de Upsala (The Forests of Uppsala) (Alfaguara, 2009) – as well as Aunque caminen por el valle de la muerte (Even Though They Walk Through the Valley of Death) (Random House, 2017), a novel based on real events which reconstructs the Battle of Najaf (Iraq). He has also published the non-fiction works Se alquila una mujer (Woman for Hire) (MR, 2002) and Guardianes de la memoria (Guardians of Memory) (MR, 2008; Fórcola, 2020), a travel book that earned him the International Award for Excellence in Journalism. He is also the author of books for children and young adults.
After three decades contributing to a range of media outlets, he is now editorial coordinator at Zenda magazine, a regular contributor to the ‘Cultura/s’ supplement (La Vanguardia) and a frequent guest on the radio programme A vivir (Cadena Ser). He also teaches in the Master’s in Publishing at the UPF School of Management, among other roles.
 

Other activities involving the participant:

Writing to acknowledge 50 years of loyalty
Barcelona today: a transformation
Learn how to write
Sustainable narratives
Expanded noir literature
Tribute to Ana María Matute. Grand literature
(Literally) killers in Barcelona
From where one writes
Literary agencies in Barcelona

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!

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

Dani Vázquez

Invitado de Honor

Daniel Vázquez is a writer and journalist. He holds a degree in information sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and combined his studies with film training at New York University. He is the author of Flores negras para Michael Roddick (Black Flowers for Michael Roddick) (2003), Comer con los ojos (Eating with the Eyes) (2006), La fiesta ha terminado (The Party’s Over) (2009) and Lena (2018). El Príncep i la mort (The Prince and Death) (2023) is one of his most personal works to date.

Other activities involving the participant:

Barcelona and the perspective of two generations

Eduardo Mendoza

Invitado de Honor

Eduardo Mendoza published his début novel The Truth about the Savolta Case, which received the Critics’ Prize, in 1975. This was followed by The Mystery of the Enchanted Crypt (1979) and The Olive Labyrinth (1982). In 1986, he published The City of Marvels, which received the City of Barcelona Prize. He has written several other novels: No Word from Gurb (1991); The Year of the Flood (1992); A Light Comedy (1996), awarded Best Foreign Book in France; The Adventure of the Ladies’ Dressing Table (2001), winner of the Madrid Booksellers Guild Award; Mauricio o las elecciones primarias (Mauricio or the Primaries) (2006), winner of the José Manuel Lara Novel Prize; El asombroso viaje de Pomponio Flato (The Amazing Journey of Pomponius Flatus) (2008), which received the Terenci Moix Prize and the Silver Pen at the Bilbao Book Fair; An Englishman in Madrid (2010), winner of the 2010 Planeta Prize and the European Book Prize; El enredo de la bolsa y la vida (The Money and Life Mishap) (2012); El secreto de la modelo extraviada (The Secret of the Missing Model) (2015); El rey recibe (The King Receives) (2018); El negociado del yin y el yang (The Yin and Yang Deal) (2019); Transbordo en Moscú (Transfer in Moscow) (2021) and Three Enigmas for the Organization (2024). In addition to the prizes already mentioned, he has received the Cervantes Prize (2016), the Liber Prize, the National Culture Prize from the Government of Catalonia, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Barcino International Historical Novel Award and the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature (2025).

Other activities involving the participant:

Tribute to Carmen Balcells. The revolution of the publishing world
Opening of the Carlos Fuentes Literary Lounge