This year, more than twenty authors from all over the world are taking part in a literary residency at Vil·la Joana

Gabriela Escobar, Leonor Courtoisie, Martha Luisa Hernández Cadenas, Karim Dakroub, Dominic Amerena or Albertina Soepboer are just some of the authors who will spend three weeks in Barcelona in 2024. Specifically, at Vil·la Joana, the old farmhouse located in the Collserola park where the preacher and poet Jacint Verdaguer lived his last years, and where he died on 10 June 1902. All of them will come to the Catalan capital to take part in a literary residence there and to carry out their new projects.

More than twenty writers and translators will have the opportunity to take up this residency, thanks to the fact that Barcelona is part of the UNESCO Cities of Literature network. In parallel, different Catalan authors, such as Albert Forns, Sebastià Portell, Maria Sevilla, Irene Pujadas and Eduard Olesti, will be able to carry out a literary residency abroad this year, also lasting three weeks.

The residencies are also made possible by the various collaborations between the Barcelona City of Literature UNESCO programme and various festivals, institutions and organisations. Collaborations have been established with PEN Català, with the KMAmèrica festival (organised by Casa Amèrica Catalunya and Biblioteques de Barcelona), with the Liternatura festival (organised by Biblioteques de Barcelona), with Sala Beckett, with the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona, with the El Sortidor Civic Centre, with the master’s degree in Literary Creation of the UPF, with the Department of Hispanic Philology of the UB and with the Etxepare Euskal Institutua of the Government of the Basque Country.

Since 2022

The Barcelona City of Literature programme organises literary residencies since 2022, always at Vil·la Joana, which has three single bedrooms with private bathroom and work area, as well as various shared spaces, such as the kitchen-living room, designed to foster relations between the authors who stay there. The building’s setting, in the heart of the Collserola mountain range, offers an environment conducive to literary creation and research, while at the same time guaranteeing easy access to the city. The author’s stays are usually in rounds of three.

The residency includes a parallel programme of activities linked to the city’s literary scene and public facilities, such as libraries, museums, schools and civic centres, in addition to the activities that will take place in Vil·la Joana.

For more information, click on the link.