Alana S. Portero

Invitado de Honor

(Madrid, 1978) has a degree in History, specializing in the Middle Ages, from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). She is a writer, playwright, scriptwriter, stage director and co-founder of the STRIGA theater company. She has collaborated with media outlets, including Agente Provocador, El Salto, SModa, Icon and Vogue; she writes in the culture section of El Diario and the opinion section of Público. She has created content on Patreon since 2018.

She has written four poetry books: Fantasmas (2010), Irredento (2011), La próxima tormenta (2013) and La habitación de las ahogadas (2017), and two plays: Música silenciosa (2009) and Hambre (2016), a play based on Blasted, by Sarah Kane.

In 2023, she published with Seix Barral La mala costumbre, her first novel, which has been translated into 15 languages and published in 18 countries. She has also received the prizes: Time Out 2023 for best work, Cálamo 2023 for book of the year, Javier Morote for best new author in 2023, and Openbank Literature by Vanity Fair for book of the year 2023.

She received the Arcoiris award from the Ministry of Equality in 2023 for showcasing trans women in her work.

She lives and works in Madrid.

Other activities involving the participant:

Inhabit the body that inhabits me

Blanca Llum Vidal

Invitado de Honor

(Barcelona, 1986) studied Social Work, Catalan Philology and Contemporary Philosophy at the Universitat de  Barcelona.

 As an author, she has published La cabra que hi havia (Documenta Balear, 2009), Nosaltres i tu (Lleonard Muntaner, 2011), Homes i ocells (Club Editor, 2012), Visca! (Documenta Balear, 2012), Punyetera flor (LaBreu Edicions, 2014), Maripasoula: Crònica d’un viatge a la Guaiana francesa (Tushita Edicions, 2015), Aquest amor que no es u / Este amor que no es uno (Ultramarinos, 2018), Amor a la brega (Pagès Editors, 2018), La princesa sou Vós / La princesa sois Vos (Club Editor, 2022) and two essays: Llegir petit i escriure sobre literatura i amor (Arcàdia, 2023) and No cometràs adulteri (Fragmenta, 2023).

As an essayist, she has published texts on Marina Tsvetáieva, Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Lévinas, Maurice Blanchot, Joan Miró, Marguerite Duras, Ausiàs March, Charlotte Delbo, Martin Heidegger, Clarice Lispector, Maria-Mercè Marçal, Jeanne Hersch, and others.

She has published an anthology of her poems in Portuguese, Lavrar fundo pelas nuvens (Texts Sentido Edição & Letras, 2023). She has published the poems of Àngel Guimerà (Editorial 1984, 2010), the complete stories of Víctor Català (Club Editor, 2017-2019), the letters of Mercè Rodoreda to Anna Murià (Club Editor, 2021) and an anthology of feminist texts by Maria Aurèlia Capmany (ARA Llibres, 2018).

She has translated Écrire by Marguerite Duras (LaBreu Editors, 2023) and, together with Arnau Pons, La Douleur, also by Duras (LaBreu Editors, 2019).

She currently writes regularly in the Catorze culture newspaper and participates in poetry and music projects with the group Los Sara Fontán, and with musician and sound designer Julián D'Avino. She is also preparing an anthology of her work translated into Italian by Marcello Belotti, and another one translated into Spanish by Unai Velasco.

Other activities involving the participant:

Poetry Room

Sabina Urraca

Invitado de Honor

(San Sebastián, 1984) is a writer and editor. She grew up in Tenerife and has lived in Madrid for over twenty years. She is the author of Las niñas prodigio (2017, Fulgencio Pimentel), winner of the Javier Morote Award, presented by the Spanish Confederation of Guilds and Associations of Booksellers (CEGAL), and selected by New Spanish Books, a program aimed at translating works in Spanish;  Soñó con la chica que robaba un caballo (2021, Lengua de Trapo); Chachachá (Dueto) (2023, Comisura) and El celo (2024, Alfaguara). She has also featured in the anthologies Verónica... (2023, Bcn Producció, La Capella), Hospitalidad contra pronóstico (2023, Bartlebooth y Concomitentes), Tranquilas.Historias para ir solas de noche (2019, Lumen) and La errabunda (2018, Lindo y Espinosa).

Her stories and translations of some chapters of her books have been published in magazines such as The White Review (United Kingdom), The Washington Square Review (USA) and Picnic (Mexico), and she has collaborated with columns and articles in outlets such as El País, El Cultural, Vice and Cinemania. She has a monthly column in the literary magazine Zenda.

She has taught writing workshops in Spain, Mexico, El Salvador and Costa Rica. In 2020, she received the 10 de 30 grant, which promotes the internationalization of Spanish writers, as part of which she gave talks at the Instituto Cervantes in Chicago and Georgetown University in Washington.

In 2019, she debuted as editor with Panza de burro, by Andrea Abreu (Barrett), as part of the “Editor for a book” project. In 2020, she received the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) grant in Spanish Creative Writing from the University of Iowa. She is the resident editor of Caballo de Troya (Penguin Random House) for 2023 and 2024. In 2023, she was awarded a literary residency by the Finestres Foundation. In 2022, she received the Leonardo grant for creators from the BBVA Foundation.

Other activities involving the participant:

And now we're going to go our separate ways: the physiology of breaking up
Toxic relationships in literature