Festivals
The Institut de Cultura de Barcelona, as part of the City of Literature Program, organises the following literary festivals. For the creation of the programming, we count on the advice of experts in the field. The proposed programming responds to literary criteria and takes into consideration: the literary commemorations of the current year, the diversity of audiences to be reached, the guiding thread of the festival, the balance between the new and the classics, the diversity of genres and formats of each presentation, the gender parity of the programmed authors, the balance between local national and international creation, and the diversity of publishing typology represented, among others.
For any query, you can contact: ciutatliteratura@bcn.cat
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Món Llibre
Since 2002, Món Llibre is the children’s and juvenile Saint George’s Day when, the weekend before the day itself, book stands and workshops fill the literary triangle of the Raval neighbourhood running from Barcelona Contemporary Art Museum (MACBA) to the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB) and Plaça de Joan Coromines. An ideal place for families to enjoy literature.
Barcelona Poesia
Barcelona Poesia is the oldest poetry festival in the city, which has been held since 1985. It brings together the creative flow of a genre that has its own strong pulse in Barcelona. New voices in poetry or the very latest from already consolidated poets can be discovered in different parts of the city. Evening recitals in different corners of Barcelona are now a classic event, with great staging and the best poets. It’s also a good time to pay homage to those no longer with us.
42 Fantastic Genres Festival of Barcelona
Technology, climate change, the pandemic. Social transformations, affective revolutions, economic crises. Dreams and nightmares, the most hidden monsters, the magic of great stories well told.
The immense power of imagination.
The 21st century does not have one unique reality. It has many. And new tools are needed to explain them. You can check the latest news from the festival here.
Barcelona Historical Novel
The Barcelona Historical Novel Festival was held in the autumns of 2013 to 2020, with a total of eight editions that invited us to look at the past to try to explain the present. Every November, lectures, activities, and book presentations were scheduled around literature and history.
In November 2021, the series Converses de novel·la històrica at El Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria took over the festival as a focus of reflection around education. The past, present and future of pedagogical methods were discussed through the historical novel lens. Each conversation had as its starting point a historical novel about education and brought together the author of the work with an expert in the field at the same table.
Visit here the different editions of the festival, where you can watch again the programs and graphic material (videos and images), as well as the list of all the winners of the Barcino International Historical Novel Prize, which is awarded to an author for the entirety of his or her work.
April the 23rd, World Book Day
On 23rd April of the year 303 AD, a knight was beheaded under the Roman regime for refusing to persecute Christians. His name was George. His death led to the belief in the famous legend that spread to many different countries, including Catalonia, where he was declared patron saint in 1456. According to this legend, George the knight fought a dragon to save a kidnapped princess. Upon spearing the dragon, a pool of blood formed from which a rose was born, and ever since then, men give their loved ones the gift of a rose on this day. From 1926, this tradition grew to include all the women giving the men the gift of a book.
The 23rd of April has many other literary connotations: it is the anniversary of the death of both Miguel de Cervantes (1616) who set part of his master piece “Don Quixote of La Mancha” in Barcelona, a city he highly commended, and English playwright William Shakespeare, also in 1616.
In 1995, UNESCO declared April the 23rd as World Book and Copyright Day.
Dialogues of Sant Jordi 2017
Launched in 2017 by the Barcelona Libraries network and Barcelona City of Literature, the Saint George Dialogues - talks between writers held in medium to large auditoriums - were created with a very clear philosophy and aim: to bring writers and readers closer and make the week leading up to Saint George's Day a regular date on the calendar and an essential meeting point for readers worldwide.
Some of the writers from the Saint George dialogues in 2017 included: Yasmina Reza, Teju Cole, Enrique Vila-Matas, Petros Markaris, Francesc Serés, Lionel Shriver, Empar Moliner, Siri Hustvedt, Gabriela Wiener, Sara Mesa, Max Besora and Carlos Zanón.
Night of the Dragon - Night of Homages
With the intention of making it an annual date, on the eve of Saint George’s Day, 22nd April, Barcelona City Council will commemorate and remember the anniversaries of writers with a big public event of poetry, music, and theatre.
The writers remembered in 2017 were: Aurora i Prudenci Bertrana, J.V. Foix, Joan Fuster, Josep Palau i Fabre, Carles Soldevila, and Màrius Torres.
Click here for the full programme of the 2017 Night of the Dragon
