On November 2, 2022, Carme Junyent called a group of writers at the University of Barcelona to ask them to collaborate on a future collective book in which she proposed writing, with or without fiction, a story about the relationship between a daughter and her husband. father, inspired by the book Fathers: reflections by daughters that the Virago publishing house had published in 1983. The result is T'estimo com la sal (Vienna), which was presented on Monday in Ona with many of the authors of the stories, but with a notable absence: Junyent passed away last September, leaving the work behind him and passing the baton as editor to Simona Škrabec, who remembered the entire process and remembered Junyent's thesis: that it is not easy to talk about the father nor, even less, kill the father But she remembered a Serbian proverb: “If it has to be done, it is not difficult.” She told the story of her and took on the task assigned to her.
On stage, in addition to her, was Marta Vives, as master of ceremonies, and Àngels Bassas, who read some samples of the texts, and among the audience were taking the floor - behind the editor Enric Viladot - Sílvia Soler, Marta Orriols, Gemma Sardà, Stefanie Kremser, Natàlia Cerezo, Marta Marín-Dòmine, Marta Romagosa, Gemma Asins, Ivet Zwatrzko i Pou, Irene Yúfera, Marta Pera Cucurell - which in the book, in addition to its own text, provides the translation of the traditional English story Cap O'Rushes (Cap-de-jonc), one of the many existing versions of what in Spanish is usually called The princess of salt - and Francesca Llopis - author of the cover -. The book also contains contributions from Margarida Aritzeta, Lolita Bosch, Andrea Mayo, Júlia Ojeda Caba and Llucia Ramis, who could not be at the presentation, where they were, among the audience, Maria Barbal, Jordi Puntí, Carles Torner, Cinta Massip, Carme Fenoll, David Paloma, Carme Sansa or Manel Guerrero, in a bookstore full of readers.
On Tuesday morning, in the room of the Sofia Barat library, perhaps there were not so many people, but Maria Teresa, Mercedes, Anna Maria, Dolores, Maria, Carmen, Maria Immaculada, Sílvia, Tina, Maria, Montserrat, José Manuel, María del Carmen, Emma, María Dolores, Montserrat, Esther, Marta, Llúcia, Maria Rosa and Clara went to the reading club led once a month by Anna Ballbona and organized by Biblioteques de Barcelona - in this case with the collaboration of the Institution of the Catalan Letters–. The book chosen was El conte de l'alphabet (The Advent), by Xènia Dyakonova, a book that doesn't just talk about her father, but also, because from the letters of the alphabet (Cyrillic, because her author was born in Saint Petersburg and arrived in Catalonia adolescente) pays tribute to his ancestors and gives us a taste of Russian culture and what Ballbona called "tradition and cultural translation". Between both writers and the participants the book is distilled, which brings the Russian soul closer to the readers. Or not, because it also became clear that, as the translator Ricardo San Vicente once said and Dyakonova remembers, "I know what the Russian salad is, but the Russian soul, not".
The book had been born in the form of articles in the magazine L'Avenç in 2021, and was published in September 2022 – shortly before the first Junyent meeting mentioned above –, and won the Serra d'Or Critics Award now it will one year.
A year ago, too, but in Santa Coloma de Farners, the Gens Poetica collective organized a tribute to the poet Antoni Clapés within the framework of the Domini Màgic festival (which by the way returns this weekend). Raig Verd's editor, Laura Huerga, went and on the way out she couldn't help but suggest that, if they intended to publish the texts that had been mentioned, they already had an editor. Theirs is not a publishing house that publishes poetry, or yes, because the book, Un instant que duradura, was presented on Wednesday in Laie, along with Clapés' latest collection of poems, Mirall fred del cel (AdiA).
The translator Dolors Udina did the honors in the tribute book, while the poet Francesc Prat presented the new poems and the actor Enric Arquimbau read a few. There were Sam Abrams and Corina Oproae, among those who participated in the book - also signed by Pep Solà, Joaquim Vilar, Roger Costa-Pau, Víctor Sunyol, Lourdes Godoy, Joaquim Sala-Sanahuja, Denise Desautels, Mireille Gansel, Jean-Gabriel Cosculluela, Jaume Aulet, Alícia Casadesús, Ramon Andrés, Josep M. Sala-Valldaura and Montse Vellvehí–, and also the poets David Ymbernon –and in(inter)disciplinary artist–, Anna Aguilar-Amat, Santi Borrell and Núria Mirabet, the translators Marta Nin and Ramon Lladó or Manel Guerrero, who is everywhere. Prat reflects on the poetry of Clapés and tells us about the balance between the blank page and the word, refers to Rilke and Eliot or to "drama and the wonder of life", while Clapés, uncomfortable because "todo eto es un nonsense, but I don't know how to say no", he says that "there are still many people who read poetry". Archimbau recites: "Rest your head / on a pillow of hay / close your eyes. / That's all".
No, it's not all. After these books in so many hands – as if Dyakonova's entire ancestry were also included –, on Thursday the Lletrescena was inaugurated in Teià, this year with the theme Writing or rewriting for the stage? In the first conversation, Writing, directing, interpreting, with the writer Maria Barbal, the playwright Magda Puyo and the actor Jordi Martínez – based on, respectively, Pedra de tartera, Cosmética del enemy by Amélie Nothomb and Reencuentro by Fred Uhlman–, moderated by Magí Camps. Because behind literature, on stage and on paper, there is never a single author. And if it has to be done...
Catalan version, here
