Catalonia
Alba Dedeu (Granollers, 1984). She studied medicine in Barcelona and Florence, and after graduating she worked as a doctor for a short period. In 2010 she quit her job to become a translator and writer. Up to now she has published a short stories book, Gats al parc (Cats in the park) (2010), which was awarded the Premi Mercè Rodoreda 2010 and the Premi Crítica Serra d’Or 2012. A new short stories book, L’estiu no s’acaba mai (Summer never ends), is due to be published in October 2012.
Links:
http://www.el9nou.cat/noticies_v_0_/17236/alba_dedeu,_les_franqueses,_publica_seu_primer_llibre
Balearic Islands
Carles el Saure, whose real name is Carles Cardona and Sanchez, was born in 1974 in Palma, in Mallorca, the largest Balearic island.
After acquiring the veterinary profession in Spain and France, he studied film directing in Barcelona and Scotland. He worked as a veterinarian and writer, director and editor of the Balearic radio and television. For the Mallorca film magazine “Temps Moderns”, he made the reviews of film classics.
In 2009 he spent an entire year traveling the world and during this time in Bolivia he finished the book Stories from the Quantum Islands / New book about animals (Contes des de l’illa Quàntica/Nou llibre de les Bèsties), which won the Mallorca award for prose in 2010. Before that, the two of his books of poetry was awarded: in 1995 the “Gabriel Ferate” award for poetry, and the “Mikel Anžel Riera” award for young poets, in 1996.
The book from which were translated the provided articles was among the top five best-selling in Mallorca for four months in Catalan fiction category for 2011, and in 2012, the second edition followed.
Catalonia
Borja Bagunyà (Barcelona, 1982) is a catalan writer. After trying Medicine and Communication Studies, Bagunyà found himself at home in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature Studies, which he now teaches at Barcelona University. For quite a long time, he was convinced to be the imaginary friend of what turned out to be his imaginary friend. Bagunyà never began writing in a strict sense; in a way, it’s something he has always done.
He has published: Apunts per al retrat d’una ciutat (Sketches for a city’s portrait, 2004), Defensa pròpia (Self Defense, 2007), and Plantes d’interior (Indoor Plants, 2011). He has participated in the anthology Veus de la nova narrativa catalana (Voices of the new catalan narrative, Barcelona, 2010) and in the anthology Mentafagylalt. 24 mai katalán elbeszéló (Budapest, 2011). Stendhal, Flann O’Brien, Quim Monzó and Monty Phyton are some of the ghosts he listens to when he starts writing; Adorno’s and Mark Twain’s are the ones he cannot stop hearing when he has finished.
Links:
http://www.bcnmes.com/reviews/based-barna-4/
Impulsa 2011:
http://en.forumimpulsa.org/2011/impulsa-awards/2011-awards/borja-bagunya/
Guadalajara 2011:
http://www.informador.com.mx/fil/2011/342156/6/escritores-que-cargan-prodigiosos-miligramos.htm