26 international authors take place in a literary residency at the MUHBA Vil·la Joana

The launch of literary residencies at MUHBA Vil·la Joana is one of the main projects of Barcelona as a UNESCO City of Literature. After a pilot test that took place last year, this 2023 there will be 26 international authors who will stay and develop their literary project in this farmhouse in Collserola, later converted into a summer house and where Jacint Verdaguer spent the last years of his life –he died there in June 1902. Today it is the MUHBA Vil·la Joana. Casa Verdaguer de la literatura de Barcelona.

In this call, three of the residents will be so in the framework of the UNESCO Cities of Literature network. In addition, Barcelona City Council has agreed a collaboration with PEN Català and the Institut Ramon Llull so that other entities can also promote exchanges with other writers’ residencies. In addition to developing their respective projects, the authors will also participate in activities related to the promotion of reading and literature, in a parallel program of activities linked to the literary fabric of the city in public facilities such as libraries, museums, schools and civic centres.

The selected residents have been divided into groups of three, and sections of three weeks. The first will take place from February 17 to May 8. Croatian writer and journalist Aleksandra Orlic, Ukrainian translator Irina Markova and Iranian writer Behrouz Boochani will be the housed. Orlic will work on her book Black Sun, a collection of poetry and short stories around the idea of lost memories. She will be joined by Markova, who during the stay will make progress on the translation from Croatian to Ukrainian of Orlic’s work Two nights in Barcelona. As for Boochani, he is an honorary member of PEN International, winner of a Media Aministia International of Australia in 2017, the Diaspora Symposium Social Justice Award, the Liberty Victòria 2018 Empty Chair Award, the Anna Politkóvskaia Award and the Veu Lliure PEN Català 2020 Award. He is the author of the book Cap altre amic que les muntanyes (Raig Verd, 2020).

The rest of the authors will arrive in Vil·la Joana in the next months: Mike Rezendes, senior investigative journalist at The Associated Press, and double Pulitzer Prize winner for the Spotlight case and for his coverage of the Boston Marathon attack; Alek Popov, Bulgarian novelist translated into more than 40 languages; the Polish translator Marta Jordan, specialist in Spanish-American narrative and contemporary Spanish drama, who during her stay will work on the Polish translation of Juan Mayorga’s work Últimas palabras de Copito de Nieve, set in the Barcelona zoo; or the Peruvian poet of Chinese origin Julia Wong.

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