Biel Mesquida

Invitado de Honor

(Castelló de la Plana, 1947) is a poet, biologist, critic and reader. His first novel, L’adolescent de sal (1973) received the Prudenci Bertrana Award. He has degrees in Biology (1969) and Information Sciences (1974), and has always upheld that literature must go through all languages, and especially the great scientific and technological poems of the 20th and 21st centuries.

He coordinated the biology section of the Gran enciclopèdia catalana (1972-1980) and directed the Communication Service of the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) (1982-2010) and the UIB press. Pioneer of university science outreach in Spain, he was the chairman of the Spanish University Communicators Group.

He created works such as Self-Service (1977), in collaboration with Quim Monzó; El bell país on els homes desitgen els homes (1974); Puta Marès (ahí) (1978); Notes de temps i viceversa (1981); Excelsior o el temps escrit (1995), Ciutat de Barcelona Award and Premio de la Crítica Award; The Blazing Library (1994); Vertígens (1999), Ciutat de Palma Award and Premio de la Crítica de los Escritores Valencianos Award; T’estim a tu (2001); Homersea (2005); Els detalls del món (2006), award Premio Nacional de Literatura Catalana; Llefre de tu (2012); Els missatgers no arriben mai (2012); L'ull Gaudí (2014), in collaboration with photographer Jean Marie del Moral; Trèmolo (2015); Formes de Paradís (2016), in collaboration with the painter Ana de Matos; Carpe momentum (2021); Encarnacions (2022) and Passes per Palma (2023), in collaboration with Jean Marie del Moral.

He has received the Creu de Sant Jordi from the Government of Catalonia and the award Premi Trajectòria from the Association of Catalan-Language Editors at the Catalan Book Week (2021). Since 1999, he has been the director of the Mediterranean Poetry Festival and is the vice-president of the Associació Festivals Chopin de Valldemossa.

Mario Obrero

Invitado de Honor

(Madrid, 2003)

Obrero began writing at the age of seven and studied Humanities at the La Senda public high school in Getafe.

He has published the books Carpintería de armónicos (2018, 14th Premio de Poesía Joven Félix Grande Award; Universidad Popular José Hierro), Ese ruido ya pájaro (2019, Ediciones Entricíclopes), Peachtree City (2021, 33rd Premio Loewe a la Creación Joven Award; Visor), Cerezas sobre la muerte (2022, La Bella Varsovia; Premio Nacional de Juventud Award in the Culture category) and Tiempos mágicos (2024, La Bella Varsovia).

He hosted the first two seasons of the literary program “Un país para leerlo”, broadcast on La 2 (Radio Television Española), and regularly collaborates with the “Gente despierta” program, on Radio Nacional de España.

Other activities involving the participant:

Reading is a right!

Ángela Segovia

Invitado de Honor

(Ávila, 1987)

Writer. She has published the books ¿Te duele?(V Premio de Poesía Joven Félix Grande, 2009); De paso a la ya tan (ÁRTEse quien pueda, 2013); La curva se volvió barricada (La uña rota, 2016), which she wrote thanks to a creation grant from the Student Residence and which received the National Literature Prize, in the Young Poetry category, in 2017; Amor divino (La uÑa RoTa, 2018); Pusieron debajo de mi mare un magüey (La uÑa RoTa, 2020) and Mi paese salvaje (La uÑa RoTa, 2021), which received the Prize for the Best Poetry Book of 2021 from Las Librerías Recomiendan.

In 2022, her first novel, Las vitalidades (La uÑa RoTa), was published, which will soon be translated into Italian by the publisher Cencellada.  In 2019, she developed the land art project Apparitions of a cottage in the woods thanks to a grant from the Villalar Foundation in Castile and León. As a result of this work, she wrote the book Jara Morta (La uÑa RoTa, 2023).  

This year she published La hora del abejorro (La uÑa RoTa, 2024), with which she culminates the Bella Morte trilogy, that began with Mi paese salvaje and continued with Jara Morta. 

Other activities involving the participant:

Poetry Room

Ismael Ramos

Invitado de Honor

(Mazaricos, A Coruña, 1994) is a Galician-language writer. His first fiction book, A parte fácil (Xerais, 2023), has been published in Spanish by Las afueras (La parte fácil) and in Catalan by Angle (La part fácil). He is also the author of three poetry books: Lixeiro (Xerais, 2021), Lumes (Apiario, 2017) and Os fillos da fame (Xerais, 2016). Two of them have been translated into Spanish: Ligero (La Bella Warsaw, 2021) and Fuegos (La Bella Warsaw, 2019), and one into Portuguese: Fogos (Do lado esquerdo, 2022).

He has received the Premio Nacional de Poesía Joven Award (2022) presented by the Ministry of Culture, and the Javier Morote Award (2019), presented by the independent Spanish bookstores (CEGAL) for the best new author.

As a writer, he is a frequent collaborator with eldiario.es.

Other activities involving the participant:

"Short forms"
Meetings (and misunderstandings). Challenges of recent Spanish narrative
Annual International Storytellers Conference