Roser Vernet, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Marta Pera Cucurell and Mar García Puig are the City of Barcelona 2023 prizes for Literature in Catalan and Spanish, translation in Catalan and Agustí Duran and Sanpere for essay, respectively, as announced this Friday the Institute of Culture of Barcelona (ICUB). The prizes, endowed with 9,500 euros, will be presented on February 13 at Barcelona City Hall.
The jury of the literature prize in the Catalan language, made up of Llucia Ramis, Mercè Sàrrias, Alba Sabaté, Marina Espasa and Víctor García Tur, has unanimously chosen to award Roser Vernet's book Lo mig del món (Club Editor), for having written “a committed and emotional portrait of a Catalonia in extinction”, with “a forceful voice that calls for collective reaction”.
The jury for the literature category in Spanish, made up of Esther Zarraluki, Ana María Iglesia Pagnotta, Isabel Sucunza, Pablo Martín Sánchez and Diego Falconí, has decided by majority to award the award to The Girls of Naranjel (Random House), by Gabriela Cabezón Chamber, for “the complexity of colonial and gender discourse.” Furthermore, the author of it has managed to “amalgamate different traditions, cultures and languages” in a “bold rereading of a controversial historical figure” with “risky, poetic and animal prose.”
Regarding the prize for translation into the Catalan language, the prize went to Marta Pera Cucurell for the English translation of Orlando, by Virginia Woolf (Vienna). According to the jury, made up of Míriam Cano, Marc Donat, Susanna Rafart, original work.”
The prize for Essay, Humanities and History of Barcelona Agustí Duran i Sanpere has finally been won by Mar García Puig for La historia dels vertebrates/La historia de los vertebrates (La Magrana / Random House). For the jury, made up of Andrea Soto Calderón, Pau Alsina, Jorge Luis Marzo, Iván de la Nuez and Mireia Capdevila, the work stands out for its "richness, variety, originality and courage when addressing issues such as the relationship between feminism, motherhood, power and health policy".
