2023 grants Montserrat Roig for writing and Carme Montoriol for drama awarded

Since 2015, Barcelona has been a City of Literature designated by UNESCO with the aim of literature being a driver of development and progress in cities. And this program includes support for the literary creation of authors linked to the city. This support is materialised annually in the Montserrat Roig Grants, addressed to authors of any nationality with a fiction (poetry and narrative) and non-fiction (essay and chronicle) writing project related to Barcelona, and the Carme Montoriol playwriting grants.

The Montserrat Roig grants are intended for a maximum of twenty authors of any nationality, with an endowment of three thousand euros per person. The award-winning authors will have a space to develop the writing project presented, for two months, in different unique locations in the city: Casa Batlló, Biblioteca de Catalunya, Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres, Reial Monestir de Santa Maria de Pedralbes, Francesca Bonnemaison Library, Castell de Montjuïc, Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona, El Born CCM and Fort Pienc Library. At the end of each phase, a public presentation will be made to editors and literary agents of the literary projects resulting from the stays.

This year the selected writers are Júlia Bacardit, Roser Bastida, Lolita Bosch, Leonor Courtoisie, Brigitte Vasallo, Laura Gonzalvo, Helena Guilera, Sonia Hernández, Xavier Lluís, Jordi de Miguel, Anna Miracle, Albert Pijuan, Eduard Olesti, Marta Rebón, Joan Safont, Marta Soldado, Patrícia Soley-Beltran, Adrià Targa (on the picture), Elaine Vilar and Clara V. Fleck. The grants’ jury was formed by the editor and writer Miquel Adam, the writer Stefanie Kremser, and the Casa Usher booksellers Anna Arranz and Maria Fernández Serra.

The Carme Montoriol Grants annually award a maximum of four writing projects related to dramaturgy. It is aimed at authors of any nationality, with a total endowment of 12,000 euros (3,000 for each of the scholarship holders). In this edition, the jury formed by playwrights Marta Aran and Marc Chornet, Toni Casares, director of the Sala Beckett, and Ferran Murillo, director of the Sala Tantarantana, has selected the projects of the playwrights Helena Tornero (on the cover image), Carla Rovira, Alba Collado and Víctor Borràs.

The granted authors will have a free space for two months to develop the theatre writing project presented and selected: Centre d’Arts Lliures-Fundació Joan Brossa, Nau Ivanow, Sala Beckett, and Teatre Tantarantana. The public presentation of the Carme Montoriol grants takes place in the framework of the “On el Teatre batega” program, within the Grec Festival (this year the works of 2022 grant winners will be presented).

More information, here.