Various Catalan authors decline to attend Frankfurt Book Fair

Upset over government’s initial policy to not consider Castilian literature as Catalan culture

Catalan Literature will go to the Frankfurt Book Fair without half of its better authors. Juan Marsé, Eduardo Mendoza, Enrique Vila-Kill, Sergi Pàmies, Javier Cercas and Carlos the Ruizes-Zafón, who typically write in Castilian, have declined to attend the event next October. The director of the Insitituto Ramon Llull, Josep Bargalló, who presented the list of the 130 invited authors, has indicated that these authors do not appear “by their own decision”.

Some of these authors had shown their reluctance to attend the German event even before the policy of the Instituto Ramon Llull to exclude from the Catalan delegation the authors who express themselves in Castilian became known.

Those that will attend include Pere Gimferrer, Balthasar Porcel, Quim Monzó, Joan Francesc Mira and Carme Riera, among others, in representation of the Catalan culture, that this year is the honored guest. Through audio-visual means, without physically being present, others that will also participate are authors such as Josep Maria Thorns, Josep Maria Fonalleras, Juan Goytisolo and Pàmies, some of who showed opposition to attending due to the controversy over the suitability of the presence of Catalan authors of Castilian expression.

Click on the ‘Article Source’ link above to read the author’s full and original item, if available, and to visit the website of the originating source (in Spanish).