Sant Jordi

Imma Monsó i Fornell (Lleida, 1959) is a writer, and has also worked as a foreign language teacher. Her career as a storyteller began in 1996 with the publication of her collection of short stories Si és no és, winner of the Ribera d'Ebre Prize, and the novel No se sap mai, the Spanish language version of which won the Tigre Juan Prize. Her second novel, Com unes vacances, published in 1998, won her the Prudenci Bertrana Prize and the Cavall Verd - Blai Bonet Narrative Prize. Since the publication of her third novel, Tot un caràcter, in 2001, she has been regarded as one of the leading women writers of her literary generation.

Some of her subsequent works have also received prestigious literary awards. For example, her short story collection, Millor que no m’ho expliquis, brought her the 2003 City of Barcelona Prize; the novel Un home de paraula, published in 2006, picked up the Salambó Prize, the Terenci Moix International Prize and the Maria Àngels Anglada Prize, and in 2012 she won the 32nd Ramon Llull Prize with her novel La dona veloç. The following year Monsó was recognised for “a personal literary work, of exemplary consistency and ambition, which shapes a world that is both rigorous and at the same time paradoxically humorous".

While pursuing her career as a storyteller, Imma Monsó has also collaborated with various newspapers and journals, such as La Vanguardia, L'Avenç, El Periódico de Catalunya and Catalan Writing. Not only has her work been translated into Spanish, but in some cases also into English, Arabic, French, Hungarian, Italian and Dutch.

She now joins the list of those who have given the opening speech for this festival which has been an important event on the city’s calendar since 2003, organized by Barcelona Libraries: Quino, José Saramago, Martí de Riquer, Emili Teixidor, Antonio Tabucchi, Alessandro Baricco, Bernardo Atxaga, José Luis Sampedro, Josep Maria Castellet, Raimon, Albert Sánchez Piñol, Donna Leon, John Banville, Claudio Magris, Yasmina Reza, Almudena Grandes, Mia Couto and Irene Vallejo. The festival’s traditional opening speech had to be cancelled in 2020 because of the health situation, and was replaced by the Sant Jordi / St George's Day Dialogue, during which we were treated to a conversation between writers Empar Moliner and Julià Guillamon.