Barcelona and Catalan literature, special guest at the Warsaw Book Fair

Barcelona and Catalan literature will be the special guest at the Warsaw Book Fair 2016, to be held in the city between 19 and 22 May. Catalan participation in the Fair is a great opportunity to open up new professional contacts and business opportunities between the Polish and Catalan publishing sectors, to make Catalan literature better known in Poland and to promote the translation of Catalan literature into Polish, particularly the classics. Catalan participation in the Fair will consist of a stand, a professional programme and a series of literary activities in the hands of a delegation of ten Catalan writers. The Institut Ramon Llull (IRL) is the organiser, with Barcelona Council and in association with the Council for Participation, Transparency and Culture of the Government of the Balearic Islands, and FC Barcelona as main partner.

The Catalan delegation will consist of Sebastià Alzamora, Blanca Busquets, Jaume Cabré, Jenn Díaz, Rafel Nadal, Marc Pastor, Jordi Puntí, Care Santos, Màrius Serra, and Jordi Sierra i Fabra. The selection, which is complemented with local authors and speakers, aims to reflect contemporary Catalan literary creation and has been designed with special attention to the requirements and the interest of the Polish publishers. The guest authors have been translated into Polish in recent years or will be on the occasion of the Fair, so that they will all be accessible to Polish readers.

The Warsaw Book Fair
The Warsaw Book Fair has been held annually since 2010 at the Warsaw National Stadium and has taken its place over time as an international meeting point for authors, publishers, literary agencies and people interested in culture. The last one drew 860 exhibitors from 29 countries, bringing together 800 authors from all over the world and more than 72,000 visitors.

The fair is an ideal setting for encounters between Catalan and Polish writers, contributing to the placement of Barcelona as a literary city and a platform for new business opportunities in the Catalan publishing sector.

The Catalan programme in Warsaw
The Catalan programme at the Warsaw Book Fair includes presentations of novelties, conversations between authors and book signings. These events are part of two programmes: a professional programme and a literary programme. Barcelona as literary setting and Barcelona as UNESCO literary city are two of the subjects to be deal with in debates and encounters. They will take place at  the stand and other parts of the Fair.
As well as the activities organised by the IRL, the Polish publishers will be organising activities linked to their authors inside and outside the Fair.

Moreover, the Warsaw Book Fair will hold a professional encounter with students from the Krakow literary translation seminar organised by the IRL, which had its first phase between 21 and 23 March at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, also a UNESCO literary city.

Catalan literature in Poland
Catalan literature will be the special guest at the Fair in an excellent context, with a volume of translations of Catalan works into Polish which is growing year by year in response to the good reception by Polish readers and thanks to the intelligent work of the Catalan publishing sector. In 2015 alone 18 Catalan titles were published in Poland and Polish readers are already familiar with names such as Albert Sánchez-Piñol, Blanca Busquets or Jaume Cabré who, with the translation of his work Jo confesso in 2013, was on the best-seller list for several weeks.

The FC Barcelona “Sport Meets Culture” programme at the Warsaw Book Fair
At the Warsaw Book Fair different elements will come together to contribute to the promotion of Catalan culture through sport, while strengthening the links between the values of sport and those of culture. The Fair takes place at the PGE Narodowy Football Stadium, and FC Barcelona has a sports school in Warsaw. Moreover, the Polish team has more supporters than most European countries. FC Barcelona and the IRL will be offering thematic activities that will provide a meeting point between culture and sport, while contributing to the promotion of literature abroad.

Among the other cultural activities on the “Sport Meets Culture” programme there will be a showing of the documentary Josep Suñol: Un crit valent, a round table at the end to discuss football with some of the writers invited by the Catalan delegation and a meeting between a writer and the students of the FCB Warsaw School to encourage the reading habit. The FC Barcelona Football School in Warsaw is the first one the club has opened in Europe, with over 650 junior players.

Barcelona and Catalan literature special guest in Warsaw: a project in association
The Institut Ramon Llull is organising the presence of Barcelona and Catalan literature as special guest at the Warsaw Book Fair with Barcelona Council and in association with the Council for Participation, Transparency and Culture of the Government of the Balearic Islands, with FC Barcelona as main partner.

This example of institutional cooperation will serve to publicise the Barcelona, UNESCO literary city programme of activities, promoted by Barcelona Council, with the additional attraction that another Polish city, Krakow, will also be part of the UNESCO creative cities network.