As part of La Setmana del Llibre en Català (Catalan Book Week), with the aim of promoting international awareness of Catalan literature and new works published in the language, the Institut Ramon Llull is organising the Llull Fellowship, a programme designed for professionals in the publishing sector from around the world that will include a personalised agenda of meetings with Catalan publishers and agents. The programme will also include introductory sessions about Catalan literature, a panorama of the Catalan publishing world, informal meetings with writers and illustrators and visits to iconic bookshops and other cultural landmarks in Barcelona.
The Llull Fellowship is aimed at two groups of publishers: those working with adult fiction, and those specialised in literature for children and young people. The international professionals from the adult fiction field participating this year are:
- Ranya Bakr, Al Arabi Publishing, Egypt
- Maria Horvei, Aschehoug, Norway
- Harriet Hirshman, Dead Ink Books, United Kingdom
- Benjamin Burguette, Grasset, France
- Laurenz Bolliger, Hoffman und Campe, Germany
- Severino Antonelli, Rizzoli, Italy
- Joanna Maciuk, Wab – Foksal, Poland
- Xin Wang, Xiron Group, China
- Abbie Storch, Yale Books, United States of America
The publishers working with children’s and young people’s literature participating in the Llull Fellowship are:
- Sara Saorin, Camelozampa, Italy
- Rhéa Dufresne, Éditions 400 coups, Canada
- Olga Popovych, Kalamar, Ukraine
- Lïva Kukle, Latvijas Mediji, Latvia
- Elizabeth Goldrick, Little Island, Ireland
- Lena Frenzel, Mixtvision, Germany
- Sophie Behr, Nathan, France
- Gokçe Aytug, Redhouse Kidz, Turkey
- Lori Benton, Scholastic, United States of America
The publishers will participate in quick meetings with more than fifty different agencies and publishers based in Catalonia. Three working days will include around four hundred meetings.
The programme will also include talks about the publishing sector and literature hosted by Alba Puig, Joan Carles Girbés, Clara Jubete, Marina Porras and Joan Burdeus.
Furthermore, there will be visits to the bookshops Casa Anita and Finestres, and to the l’Escola d’Art i Disseny La Massana (the School of Art and Design La Massana) where two authors, Pep Montserrat and Christian Inaraja will offer a panorama of Catalan illustration. The guests will also have the opportunity to enjoy informal meals with writers, illustrators, representatives of institutions and cultural journalists.
The installations of the COAC (the Architect’s Association of Catalonia) in Barcelona will host the majority of the programme’s meetings and activities.
The Llull Fellowship is one of the Area of Literature’s key programmes and has the promotion of Catalan literature abroad as its main objective. The project was begun in 2007, when Catalan culture was guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, with the purpose of encouraging the introduction of Catalan literary works to different markets and their translation into different languages. Since then, more than two hundred professionals from thirty-five countries have participated in the Fellowship.
