Jordi Coca, Esteve Miralles, Josefina Caball and Juan Gómez Bárcena, Ciutat de Barcelona Literary Awards
They have been awarded, respectively, in the categories of Essay, Literature in Catalan, Translation and Literature in Spanish.
Since 1949, Barcelona City Council has been organising the Ciutat de Barcelona Awards, which from the outset have been aimed at recognising artistic creation. They are worth €9,500 and will be awarded on 15 February at a ceremony in the Saló de Cent. The juries of these distinctions have made public the verdicts of the Ciutat de Barcelona Awards 2022 in the categories Agustí Duran i Sanpere Essay, Humanities and History of Barcelona, Literature in Catalan language, Translation in Catalan language and Literature in Spanish language.
The jury, made up of Najat El Hachmi (president), Pau Pedragosa, Pau Alsina, Oriol Nel-lo and Èlia Llach, has agreed by majority to award the Agustí Duran i Sanpere City of Barcelona Award for Essay, Humanities and History of Barcelona to the work El teatre de Shakespeare en el seu context, by Jordi Coca, published by Edicions de 1984 and Edicions Institut del Teatre. This is an outstanding contribution that offers an innovative and demystifying reading of one of the great authors of world literature by considering his work in the historical context in which it was created.
The jury made up of Esteve Plantada (president), Alba Sabaté, Albert Pijuan, Llucía Ramis and Víctor Garcia has unanimously agreed to award the Ciutat de Barcelona Award for Literature in Catalan to the work El meu amic, by Esteve Miralles, published by Angle Editorial, for having interwoven a personal story with a social and political portrait of Catalonia in recent decades through an agile narrative play and exemplary stylistic refinement.
On the other hand, the jury formed by Míriam Cano (president), Marta Hernández Pibernat, Marc Rubió, Alba Dedeu and Xènia Dyakonova has unanimously decided to award the Ciutat de Barcelona Award for Translation in Catalan to Josefina Caball for her translation of El color porpra, by Alice Walker, published by Proa, for its fresh and lively style and for the verisimilitude and boldness of its linguistic approach.
Finally, the jury made up of Esther Zarraluki (president), Ana María Iglesia Pagnotta, Miqui Otero, Neus Botellé and Pablo Martín Sánchez unanimously agreed to award the Ciutat de Barcelona Award for Literature in the Spanish language to Lo demás es aire, by Juan Gómez Bárcena, published by Editorial Seix Barral, for the work's formal risk, which manages to condense in the anonymous lives of a small village the most universal experiences, contradictions and yearnings. With a very sophisticated use of language and time, in tension between tradition and rupture, the author has written a novel that, despite its experimental character, is not very contrived, very exciting intellectually and very intimate.
The winners of the other categories of the Ciutat de Barcelona Awards 2022 will be announced in the coming days.