Barcelona Historical Novel
BNH - 2020 Edition
The last edition of the festival (November 9 to 14, 2020) was affected by the global Covid-19 pandemic and had to adapt the activities to a digital format. With the title Barcelona, the history, and curated by Fèlix Riera, it observed the history of the city through the historical novels that have made it its protagonist and that describe both its evolution and its trajectory, which, at the same time, is the history of the people of Barcelona and of everyone who has contributed to making it a reality. It toured the built, the hospitable, or the hidden city, the cities it was in the 10th, 18th, or 20th centuries - even the one it was 200 years before our era.
The 2020 International Barcino Historical Novel Prize was awarded to Eduardo Mendoza, a writer who has made us visit Barcelona time and again through his novels and who is one of the city's main literary ambassadors.
BNH - 2019 Edition
'Little Stories that have made history'. This was the motto of the seventh edition of the festival (from November 4 to 9, 2019), which paid tribute to literature that restores ordinary, anonymous people to their rightful place in history. Curator Fèlix Riera proposed a journey through time through both real, documented, and fictional stories, which help us understand the moral, social, and artistic dimensions of an era.
The 2019 International Barcino Historical Novel Prize went to Isabel Allende, creator of stories inspired by notable historical events and one of the most widely-read writers in the world.
BNH - 2018 Edition
The sixth edition of Barcelona Historical Novel (from 5 to 10 November 2018) was entitled Creation. Artists in history, and did not limit itself only to the city, it also did to the geniuses of art of all times (Pablo Picasso, Josep Pla, Nicolas Poussin, Camille Claudel, Salvador Dalí, El Bosco, Frida Kahlo or Leonardo Da Vinci, among others), who turned into the protagonists of fictions that drink from reality. The festival, curated by Fèlix Riera, was held at the Jaume Fuster Library like last year’s edition and was also established at the Antoni Tàpies Foundation.
The 2018 International Barcino Historical Novel Prize was awarded to Leonardo Padura, one of the most important contemporary writers in Latin America.
BNH - 2017 Edition
With Fèlix Riera taking over as curator, the fifth edition of the festival (from November 6 to 11, 2017) initiated a new phase. It incorporated a leitmotif, The human condition, and emphasised human emotions and actions based on three axes: making history, starring in it, or looking at it. The festival presented highlights such as the meeting with the Chilean writer Jorge Edwards and the actress Maria Molins, the meeting between the filmmaker Albert Serra and the screenwriter and novelist Javier Olivares –responsible for the television series El Ministerio del Tiempo–, and the talks that, throughout the day on Thursday, dealt with the phenomenon of the Latin American historical novel. The festival moved to the Jaume Fuster Library and the Teatre Condal.
The 2017 International Barcino Historical Novel Prize went to Arturo Pérez-Reverte, a masterful example of a writer who explains how the human condition determines the way of doing things for men and women who have lived before us.
BNH - 2016 Edition
In addition to the El Born CCM as its headquarters, the fourth edition of Barcelona Historical Novel (from 7 to 11 November 2016) –the last under the baton of Enric Calpen – opened to new spaces such as the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Casa de l’Ardiaca and the Museu Egipci. It focused on ancient Egypt and classical Greece with historical walks, a review of films based on novels, and the figure of Alexander the Great. Events were also organised in conjunction with the commemorations of 30 years of Amics del Liceu and the 400th anniversary of the publication of the second part of Don Quixote (which is most related to Barcelona than the first one).
The 2016 International Barcino Historical Novel Prize went to the French Egyptologist Christian Jacq, the most famous author in the world in the dissemination of the history and customs of ancient Egypt. His best-known works are novels about this civilisation, but he has written others in the detective genre and scientific essays on Egyptology.
BNH - 2015 Edition
In its third edition (from November 3 to 7, 2015), the contest curated by Enric Calpena invited lovers of historical literature to take part in several walks to relive the Barcelona of the time of the bandits and, at the same time, discover the techniques and contexts of historical novels by their authors.
The 2015 International Barcino Historical Novel Prize went to the English novelist Simon Scarrow, a true historical bestsellers maker. Scarrow has written about twenty books, all with a historical theme, and both the series dedicated to the legionaries Cato and Macro and the so-called The heroes have had great popular recognition.
BNH - 2014 Edition
Barcelona Historical Novel held its second edition (from November 17 to 22, 2014) again at the El Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria, and was curated by Enric Calpena. On this occasion, he focused on the first emperor of the Roman Empire and founder of the Roman city of Barcino, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian –better known as Augustus–, coinciding with the two thousandth anniversary of his death. The four decades before the Carnation Revolution in Portugal and the centenary of the start of World War I were also remembered.
The 2014 International Barcino Historical Novel Prize went to Santiago Posteguillo, author of two of the most popular historical novel trilogies, both in Spain and in other countries, both centred on the figures of Scipio and Trajan.
BNH - 2013 Edition
The first edition of the festival (from November 11 to 16, 2013) was curated by Enric Calpena and was held in the Sala Moragues at El Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria as part of the 1714-2014 Tricentenary commemorations.
The 2013 Barcino International Historical Novel Prize went to British writer Lindsey Davis, author of the magnificent series of novels set in Rome during the 1st century AD and starring Marcus Didius Falco, a private detective from before private detectives existed.