2024 Edition - Barcelona Crea Grants - Montserrat Roig

2024 MONTSERRAT ROIG GRANTS

 

AUTHORS WITH A PLACE OF RESIDENCE

 

Autumn 2024

 

Pau Subirós (Barcelona, 1979). Writer, scriptwriter and director. He has directed several programmes and documentaries for TVE, TV3 and Betevé and has received a Gaudí Award for the best script for La plaga. As part of the Crónicas collection of the Anagrama publishing house, he has published the narrative essay El productor accidental (The Accidental Producer). He currently combines audiovisual projects with teaching at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and collaborations in radio and written media.

Conducts the fellowship at Pedralbes Monastery.

 

Marta Millà (Barcelona, 1963). With a career spanning more than four decades on the stage, Marta Millà has captivated audiences with her performances in theatre and on television. Her presence has been a regular feature in Barcelona's theatres until 2019 and in highly successful shows such as ‘Plats Bruts’, ‘Ventdelplà’ and ‘Com si fos ahir’, among many others. Since 2020 her professional life has taken a turn towards writing, stage direction and gestalt therapy, linking her new passions to the practice of Zen (she is a Zen nun). She has published Contes zen, petites històries per a despertar at Viena Edicions and Jatakes at Petit Fragmenta. She teaches meditation and therapeutic theatre workshops and has a private practice as a gestalt therapist in Barcelona.

Conducts the fellowship at Tàpies Foundation.

 

Toni Junyent Rosa (Igualada, 1983). He is a film critic and from time to time he also writes poetry. He graduated in Journalism at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. His texts have appeared in the media such as Cinemanía, El Salto Diario, Ara, Mercurio, Transit and in the diary of the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival. He has self-published several fanzines and has published the poetry book La Quimera del Tahini y otros poemas (Llamp Edicions, 2021). He has also participated in several collective books on cinema, such as Lifeforce, minuto a minuto (Fuerza Vital, 2013); Adam Sandler. La infancia infinita (Macnulti, 2015) and La memoria en imágenes (Trea, 2021). He is co-writer of the film Amor tóxico and has acted in short films and independent films. Together with Renata Gelosi, he organises the travelling poetry cycle After Eight, which invites poets to recite in ice-cream parlours and open spaces.

Conducts the fellowship at Francesca Bonnemaison Library.

 

Xavier Acarín Wieland. He is a curator and teacher, interested in material performativity, urban studies and exhibition histories. Among others, he has worked and collaborated with organisations such as Centre d'Art Santa Mònica, Site Santa Fe, Creative Time, The Kitchen, Frieze New York, Loop Festival, Desis Lab, and has been a juror for the Brooklyn Arts Council (2015-17), Miquel Casablancas Award (2018), and Tarragona Art Biennial (2023).

His curatorial projects have been presented at Mies van Der Rohe Foundation, Reial Cercle Artístic, Caixaforum and ADN Galery in Barcelona; Elastic City, Chez Bushwick, Peekskill Project 6, the Abrons Arts Center, ESTE Gallery, Knockdown Center, Wendy's Subway, ISCP and PS122 Gallery in New York; La Ira de Dios in Buenos Aires; and HIAP and Muu Gallery in Helsinki.

He is the author of one of the publications of the Museu Habitat programme (Department of Culture, 2024), and co-author of the books Designing Experience (Bloomsbury, 2014), Dear Helen (CCS Bard, 2014), Davant la Imatge (Comanegra, 2016), and Itziar Barrio (Skira, 2024). He has also published articles and interviews in Arts of the Working Class, Exibart, El Periódico, A-Desk, Culturas-La Vanguardia, Esnorquel, and Terremoto; and has written texts for exhibitions at Jorge López Gallery, Centre d'Art Tecla Sala, P.A.D. Gallery, Rosa Santos Gallery, and Participant Inc.

He teaches and has taught at art and design schools such as Parsons School of Design, School of Visual Arts, EINA, IED, Metafora, and Elisava; and is currently a PhD student in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths-University of London. Among others, he has received grants from La Capella-Barcelona Producció, Institut Ramon Llull, OSIC, CIMAM, and Barcelona Crea.

Conducts the fellowship at Biblioteca de Catalunya.

 

Marta Parreño Gala (Barcelona, 1980). Writer and filmmaker. She also worked as a journalist for over a decade. She is currently a textbook editor, a job she combines with writing and cinema. She is the author of the biographies of Audrey Hepburn, Katharine Graham and Alice Guy for the collection ‘Grandes mujeres’ (RBA) and of the poetry book Esferas.

She has written and directed seven short films, with which she has won numerous awards at national and international festivals. Her short film Una flor en recepción was a finalist at the Goya Awards in 2012. As a journalist she has worked for El Periódico de Catalunya, La Vanguardia and The Objective.

She is currently working on her first novel and is preparing a documentary.

Conducts the fellowship at Picasso Museum.

 

Spring 2025

 

Ricard Planas. He holds a degree in Philosophy (UB, 2008), Asian Studies (UPF-UAB, 2009) and a Master's degree in Chinese Studies (UPF, 2013). In 2009 he won an ICO scholarship that allowed him to study at the Beijing Foreign Studies University. In 2019 he received his PhD from the Humanities Department of the UPF. He has published Historia del cine chino (2019) at Almuzara publishing house and teaches the subject ‘Cinemes de la sinofonia i audiències’ (Synophonie Cinemas and Audiences) of the Chinese Studies Master at UPF (2016-2018) and the subject ‘Asian Cinemas’ of the Asian-Pacific Studies Master in a Global Context at the same university (2018-2020). He currently teaches history of Chinese cinema in Salamanca and editorial management at CIFO (Centre for Innovation and Occupational Training). He is founder and co-director of the publishing house Males Herbes with which he has been publishing foreign cult authors and new visions of Catalan literature since 2012.

Conducts the fellowship at Arxiu Històric.

 

Maribel Rams Albuisech (Batea, Tarragona, 1980). She has a degree in Hispanic Philology and Literary Theory, and a master's degree in Construction and Representation of Cultural Identities (Universitat de Barcelona). In 2018 she obtained a postgraduate degree in Film Studies and a PhD (University of Massachusetts, Amherst). She specialises in the cinema and novels of the Civil War and the Franco regime, autobiographical discourses and feminist theory. In 2022 she published her essay Posmemoria, emigración y guerrilla. El documental autoetnográfico de María Ruido y Carla Subirana (Edicions UB). She is also the author of a dozen academic articles and has been a visiting professor at universities in the United States and Spain. She currently lives in Barcelona and is a substitute lecturer at Universitat Rovira i Virgili.

Conducts the fellowship at Biblioteca de Catalunya.

 

Ivet Zwatrzko i Pou (Manlleu, 1998). She is a graduate in Humanities from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, where she received the award for Best Final Year Project from the Faculty, and has specialised in comparative literature with a Master's degree from the Sorbonne University in Paris (France) thanks to a scholarship of international excellence.

She is currently a researcher at La Sapienza - Università di Roma (Italy) and Universitat Pompeu Fabra as part of a co-direction of her doctoral thesis, a task she combines with cultural dissemination, translation and literary creation in various Catalan magazines and publishing houses.

Conducts the fellowship at Castell de Montjuïc.

 

Mariló Àlvarez Sanchis (Picassent, 1987). She has a degree in Journalism, and is an editor and writer. In the field of narrative, she has mainly worked in genre literature for young people, especially science fiction and fantasy.

In 2018 she published her first novel, La primera onada (Edicions Bromera) -translated into Spanish as La primera oleada (Algar, 2021)-, as well as her first collection of science-fiction short stories, Relats d'un futur imperfecte (Edelvives - Baula).

In 2020 she was awarded the València Nova Narrative Prize for La taxidermista d'emocions (Edicions Bromera), a realistic novel that straddles the line between literature for adults and literature for young people.

In 2022 she was awarded the 9th Agustí Vehí-Vila de Tiana Memorial Prize for her novel Suïcidis S.A. (Crims.cat), which was also a finalist for the award for Best Novel at the València Negra Festival. This same year she published a children's adaptation of the world literature classic Pinotxo (Edicions Bromera) and the juvenile novel Piranya social (Sembra Llibres).

In 2023 she published the short science-fiction novel Guia avançada per a pringades espacials (Editorial Chronos) and is preparing the publication of the second part of La primera onada, as well as her first children's novel.

On the other hand, she has also published several stories and illustrations in magazines, newspapers and cultural supplements, such as Gargots, Freakcions or Arts, as well as some illustrations in science-fiction magazines such as Catarsi or Freakcions.

Conducts the fellowship at Francesca Bonnemaison Library.

 

Ana Moya (Nou Barris, Barcelona, 1974). She is a member of the teaching staff and faculty of Ateneu Barcelonès Writing School, as well as of Centre for African and Intercultural Studies. She has published the novels Cafè Zoo (Viena Edicions, Ciutat de Badalona Award 2012), Immorality Act (Ediciones de Salinas) and the collection of poems Monstres i rellotges (Ediciones Oblicuas). She was a finalist for the 42nd Just M. Casero Short Novel Award with El carrer on vius, which will be published by La Magrana in January 2025. She collaborates as a reviewer of African works in the magazine Kopek and is a member of the literary group Grupo Bojador, with which she has just published the short story collection Sinfonía Criminal (Nazarí Editorial). She lived in Windhoek (2007-2009) and Lisbon (2019-2024), cities that have inspired some of the stories in her novels.

Conducts the fellowship at Biblioteca de Catalunya.

 

 

AUTHORS WITH NO PLACE OF RESIDENCE

 

Anna Gual (Vilafranca del Penedès, 1986). She is the author of the poetry books Implosions, L'ésser solar, Símbol 47, Molsa, El tubercle, Altres semideus, Ameba and Les ocultacions. She has received several awards: the Pare Colom Poetry Prize 2013, the Bernat Vidal i Tomàs Prize 2016, the Senyoriu Ausiàs March Prize 2016, the Cadaqués a Rosa Leveroni Prize 2019 and the Miquel de Palol Prize 2022. Her poems have been translated into French, English, Italian, Portuguese, Galician, Spanish, Croatian, Slovak and Russian and have appeared in various publications. Throughout her career she has participated in literary festivals in Italy, Croatia, Russia, France, Slovakia and England. Her work is marked by an interest in image and language and includes themes such as nature, the cosmos, mysticism and writing itself.

 

Emma Mussoll (Canet de Mar, 1987). She is a writer and scriptwriter. She has a degree in Advertising from the UPF. Trained in film and screenwriting at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles and the Catalan Film Academy. She is the author of No he estat jo (2024), El forat que deixes (2023) and several fiction podcasts, such as Mai no ho sabreu (2022), nominated for the Sonor Awards. Scriptwriter of two of the first audio fictions of the international platform Storytel: Ladrones de memoria (2018) and Operación Reset (2020), both available in ebook version. She has also written audio series for Turisme de Bretanya, Vanity Fair, Podimo and Planeta Àudio. She combines her vocation with teaching (UAB, Domestika, La Llama School) and is a consultant in sound fiction and creative writing.

 

Ignacio Elpidio Domínguez Ruiz. He is a social anthropologist specialising in queer studies, victimisation and inequalities. He has published in academic and dissemination contexts on bisexuality, spatial inequalities among LGBTIQ+ people, tourism and restorative justice, and is the author, among other publications, of Bifobia: Etnografía de la bisexualidad en el activismo LGTB and Tú a Soria y yo a Barcelona: o cómo cambian las vidas queer en función de dónde vivamos. He has worked as a lecturer and researcher at Universitat de Barcelona and Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and currently works as a lecturer in Sociology at the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, from where he develops research projects focused on spatial inequalities and gender.

 

Layla Martínez. She is an editor and writer. She has published the essay Utopía no es una isla (Episkaia, 2020) and the novel Carcoma (Amor de Madre, 2021), translated into seven languages and currently being adapted for theatre in Spain, Mexico and the Czech Republic. She has given workshops and courses on literature and horror cinema. She is currently working on writing a script for a film, correcting her second essay, entitled El reino intermedio, and writing her second novel.

 

Muriel Villanueva (València, 1976). She is a writer, author of more than forty literary works for all ages, including novels, short stories, poems, theatre, sound fiction and short films, as well as short publications in anthologies and online. Highlights include La gatera, Rut Sense Hac, Duna, Dunes, El refugi del Tarek and the trilogy L'Esfera. She has been awarded more than a dozen prizes, including the J.M. Casero, the Critics' Prize of Valencian Writers, the Carlemany Prize, the Atrapallibres Prize and the Llibreter Prize.

She has been translated into Spanish, English, Portuguese, Polish, Korean and Chinese.

She has a degree in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature from Universitat de Barcelona and a diploma in Music Education from Universitat de València.

 

Ana Paula Sánchez-Cardona (Guadalajara, Mexico). She lives in Barcelona. PhD in Humanities with studies in cultural management and digital humanities. She links art, literature and the media of representation in her creative, research, curatorial and teaching projects. Her field of research is the relationship between literary text and photographic images. She has published the poetry/photography book Desarmado. Elegía para una tierra sin nombre (2014) and the biographical essay La cámara de Arthur Rimbaud. Sobre los pasos de una experiencia fotográfica (2023). She is co-editor of the book Formas de resistencia: siete experiencias de escucha y denuncia en las prácticas artísticas (2020) and has articles and chapters in publications on methodologies of cultural management and culture of peace.

 

Joan Tomàs (Palma, 1984). Degree in History from the UAB. Master in Comparative History and Doctor in Performing Arts from the same university. In the field of poetry he has published Els Jorns (2008. Miquel Costa i Llobera Award, 2008), Proètica dels plaers (Bernat Vidal i Tomàs Award, 2009), Obagues i solanes (2016), Epigramari (2021) and Fosca negra (Jocs Florals de  Barcelona Award, 2023). As a narrator, he has recently debuted with La miopia (2024). In the field of dramatic literature, he has also published Cendres. Cartografia de l'exili (Pare Colom Award, 2016) and Cul-de-sac (Llorenç Moyà Award, 2024). He is a member of the company Corcada Teatre, with which he has worked as a playwright and assistant director in more than a dozen shows, including #Comviure (City of Palma Performing Arts Award, 2017 and Special Atapib Award, 2017) and Cabaret intimíssim (Atapib Award for the best show, 2019). He has also written the screenplays ‘Mai neva a ciutat’ and ‘Llim’.

© Joan Vidal 

 

Lluís-Anton Baulenas (Barcelona, 1958). He is a novelist, playwright and translator. He is a regular contributor to the Barcelona press. He has been translated into English, Spanish, French, Danish, Hebrew, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Chinese, Polish, Dutch and Romanian. His novels that have been made into films include: Anita no perd el tren (2001), Amor idiota (2005) and A la deriva (2010), by Ventura Pons. He has won the main Catalan literature awards. He combines narrative with theatre. His latest productions are Salva't, Salvat (2024) and He mort el pop (2024). In the field of language, he is the author of Manual de llengua catalana (Gea, 1984), as well as various updates of classic Catalan authors. The most recent is Curial e Güelfa (Barcino, 2021). He also signs the essays El català no morirà (Edicions 62, 2004) and L'últim neandertal (RBA, 2014).

 

Rafael Vallbona (Barcelona 1960). Writer, journalist, editor and cultural agitator. Author of more than seventy books including novels, non-fiction, poetry and travel books, some of which have been translated into Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian. He has won the Just Manel Casero and Roc Boronat awards for narrative, Amat Piniella and Nèstor Luján for historical novels, Ernest Udina for journalism, Columna Jove and Ramon Muntaner for juvenile novels, Ferran Canyameres for crime novels, Sant Joan BBVA for novels and Ciutat de Tarragona, Cadaqués a Rosa Leveroni and Barcelona Jocs Florals for poetry, among others. The novel Tros has been made into a film by Paul Calpe with Pep Cruz and Roger Casamajor.

With the novel La casa de la frontera (2017) he began a cycle of panoramic views of the 20th century that continued with Swing (2021) and ended with Tardes al Bellamar (2025).

© Carlos Sánchez

 

Roger Sànchez Esteban.Language defender, cultural activist, rooted in the land. Social, community and political involvement for more than half a lifetime. In Sant Andreu de Palomar and in the Catalan Countries.

Language and culture - in the broadest, richest and most multidimensional sense - have fascinated him since he was a child. He has learnt that life is conflict and has clearly chosen the side of the barricade. He practices reading as a way of learning and writing as a way of questioning. He has travelled a lot and is delighted to return there. Book lover in every possible way, and of the diacritics' team. Passionate about good coffee. Music always, please. Lover of word games and language games in general. And languages. Cuidar and cuinar (‘caring’ and ‘cooking’) are spelt almost identically. People, land and class as banners of freedom. Let them wave high, he says.

 

Youssef El Maimouni (Ksar el Kebir, 1981). Writer and social educator. Graduate in Arabic Philology and Master in Conflict Resolution. He has published Cuando los montes caminen and Nadie salva a las rosas.

 

Gabriela Escobar Dobrzalovski (Uruguay, 1990). Her novel Si las cosas fuesen como son received the Juan Carlos Onetti Award 2021 and was a finalist for the IESS Award of Edizioni SUR (Italy, 2022) and the longlist of the Finestres Award (Spain, 2023). It has been published in Spain, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay and is forthcoming in Colombia and Mexico.

In 2024 she was invited to the writing residencies of the Finestres Foundation and Vil·la Joana (MUHBA). She has collaborated with the literary magazines Oro and Lento and has participated in LGBT anthologies, among others.

She is an advanced student of the bachelor's degree in Visual and Plastic Arts of Fine Arts and of the Technicature in Dramaturgy at UDELAR-EMAD.