Writers and Barcelona
Barcelona has been and keeps being a perfect scene for literary works, a source of inspiration for writers who were born here and a welcoming place for writers from around the world who have described it in their books.
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Pere GIMFERRER
(Barcelona, 1945)
A poet, writer of prose, a translator and literary critic, he has been a member of the Spanish Royal Academy since 1985. His successful career as a poet began with Mensaje del tetrarca (1963), Arde el mar (1966, winner of the National Poetry Award) and La muerte en Beverly Hills (1968). He is also author, among others, of poetry books Els miralls (1970), L'espai desert (1977, 1978 Lletra d'Or Award) and El vendaval (1988, winner of City of Barcelona Award, National Literature Award, and the Crítics Serra d'Or Award), and of the novels Fortuny (1983), winner of the Ramon Llull Novels Award.
Francisco GONZÁLEZ LEDESMA
(Barcelona, 1927 – 2015)
A lawyer and writer, he was chief editor of La Vanguardia and El Correo Catalán. In1983, the first novel from the police series featuring Inspector Méndez was published, El expediente Barcelona, and in1984 he won the Planeta prize for his work Crónica sentimental en rojo. Other novels out of the autho's extensive bibliography, the majority of which are set in his home city, include: Las calles de nuestros padres (1984), Historia de Dios en una esquina (1991), El pecado o algo parecido (2002), La ciudad sin tiempo (2007) and Peores maneras de morir (2013).
José Agustín GOYTISOLO
(Barcelona, 1928 – 1999)
Member of the so-called generation of the fifty, he was one of the most successful and popular poets of the second half of the twentieth century. He is author of works such as El retorno (1955), Salmos al viento (1958), Algo sucede (1966), Del tiempo y del olvido (1977), Final de una adiós (1984) and Novísima oda a Barcelona (1993). Many of his poems have been adapted to songs by songwriters such as Joan Manuel Serrat, Amancio Prada, Rosa León, Soledad Bravo, Mercedes Sosa, and especially Paco Ibáñez. One of the highlights was the renowned version of “Palabras para Julia”.
Juan GOYTISOLO
(Barcelona, 1935- Marraquech, 2017)
A writer and journalist, he is an essayist and author of an extensive narrative. His most prominent work includes Para vivir aquí (1960), Marks of Identity (1966), Count Julian (1970) and Juan sin tierra (1975). He also wrote essays such as Problemas de la novela (1959), España y los españoles (1979), Saracen Chronicles (1982) and De la Ceca a la Meca. Aproximaciones al mundo islámico (1997). He has lived in Marrakesh since 1996, and in 2001 he was appointed honorary member of the Morrocco Writers’ Union (UEM). The library at the Cervantes Institute in Tanger has been named after him since 2007.
Luis GOYTISOLO
(Barcelona, 1935)
Novelist and essayist, he is the brother of writers José Agustín and Juan Goytisolo, also writers. In 1953 he began to read Law, and in 1958 he published his first novel Las afueras. He is the author of the tetralogy Antagony, composed of Recounting (1973), The Greens of May until the Sea (1976), The Wrath of Achilles (1979) and Theory of Knowledge (1981). In 1976, he received the City of Barcelona Award, and he has been a member of the Spanish Royal Academy since 1994.
Julià GUILLAMON
(Barcelona, 1962)
Journalist, literary critique and writer, he collaborates regularly with La Vanguardia journal and is the author of literary essays such as Joan Perucho i la literatura fantàstica (1989), La ciutat interrompuda, De la contracultura a la Barcelona postolímpica (2001), with which he won the Crítica Serra d'Or essay prize, in 2002. With El dia revolt (2008), he obtained the Ciudad de Barcelona prize and the Lletra d'Or prize in 2009, and with Joan Perucho, cendres i diamants (2015), the Crítica Serra d'Or in 2016. He has also written the novel La Moràvia (2011), the short-stories volume La fàbrica de fred (1991), the articles anthology El sifon de can Sitra (2017) and the testimony book Travessar la riera (2017).
H
Enrique de HÉRIZ
(Barcelona, 1964)
A writer graduated in Hispanic Philology from the University of Barcelona, he is a teaching at the School of Writing of the Barcelona Ateneu. In 2004, he received the Writers Award for his work Mentira (2004), and he is author of other work such as El día menos pensado (1994) and Historia del desorden (2000). He is a translator of renowned works by authors such as Peter Carey, Annie Proulx, Stephen King, Elmore Leonard and Daniel Defoe.
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Mercè IBARZ
(Saidí, Baix Cinca, 1954)
A writer and jounalist, she is a specialist on the figures of Mercè Rodoreda and Luis Buñuel. She is author of essays such as Mercè Rodoreda: un retrat (1991, critics award Serra d'Or) and Tierra sin pan: Buñuel i els nous camins de les avantguardes (1999), as well as works of fiction such as No parlis de mi quan me'n vagi (2010), Febre de carrer (2005) and A la ciutat en obres (2002), a book in which the author sets one of the stories in a house on Barcelona’s Eixample. She has been living in Barcelona since 1971.
William IRISH (Cornell WOOLRICH)
(New York, 1903 – 1968)
A North American crime novelist, Cornell Woolrich signs his work under the pen name of William Irish. In 1947 he published the short story One night in Barcelona. Portraying the districts of the Eixample and Ciutat Vella as his settings, the story was initially published in the Mystery Book Magazine and later in the work Los sanguinarios y los atrapados (1986).
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Clara JANÉS
(Barcelona, 1940)
Poet, essayist, novelist, and translator, she is the daughter of the editor and poet Josep Janés. She has translated work in Czech by Vladimir Holan, and is autor of an extensive work of poetry, fiction and essay. In 1972, she won the City of Barcelona Award for her biography La vida callada de Federico Mompou (1972).