2024 International Author Residency Exchange
We’re thrilled to announce the writers involved in our International Residency Exchange with the fabulous folks at Barcelona UNESCO City of Literature.
In this exciting exchange, both Cities of Literature send a published author to their respective cities for three weeks of writing, events, and activities.
This exchange gives authors the chance to hone and dedicate time to writing; whilst also introducing Exeter audiences to Catalan literature, and Catalan audiences to writing from Exeter.
Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson in Barcelona
Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson is the Sunday Times Bestselling author of the Future Worlds Prize winning debut novel, The Principle of Moments, published in January 2024, by Gollancz. As an author of Nigerian, Jamaican, and British-Australian heritage, her work primarily focuses on people who live at the intersection of identities, whether that’s here on Earth, or in far away galaxies of her own creation. She holds a BA in English Literature and Classical Studies from the University of Exeter.
Barcelona Residency Location: Vil.la Joana
Vil·la Joana was the final home of the writer Jacint Verdaguer. Today, Vil·la Joana acts both as a memorial and as a house of literature: a space that emphasises the value of the literary word through the figure of Verdaguer. The writer acts as a prism through which we see Barcelona’s reality as a literary city and the phenomenon of the universal literary experience. Find out more about Vil·la Joana here.
Esmie stayed at Vil·la Joana in May to work on a new fantasy project.
Sebastià Portell in Exeter
Born in Ses Salines, Majorca, Sebastià Portell now lives in Barcelona. He is a writer, playwright, columnist across various media outlets, and is the president of the Catalan Writers’ Association.
His work includes the short-story collection Maracaibo (2014) and the novels El dia que va morir David Bowie (The Day David Bowie Died, 2016), which won the Time Out Barcelona Award for Creator of the Year, Ariel i els cossos (Ariel and the Bodies, 2019), and most recently Les altures (The Heights, 2022), his most ambitious novel to date, where he delves into the life of Ismael Smith, one of the most queer, genuine and exceptional figures in Catalan cultural history.
His plays include Un torrent que era la mar (A Stream That Was the Sea, 2013) which won the Ciutat de Badalona Theatre Award, and Transbord (2018), due to be published in English translation in 2024 as Changing Trains (Fum d’Estampa Press, translated by Richard Huddleson).
He has also written non-fiction, such as Paradisos suportables (Bearable Paradises, 2023), telling the stories of writers’ houses and museums in Majorca, and he was responsible for the very first anthology of Catalan LGBTQ poetry Amors sense casa (Homeless Loves, 2018).
In 2021 he published the essay Les nenes que llegien al lavabo (The Girls Who Read in the Bathroom), a cry for freedom in reading and writing, to critical acclaim.
Exeter Residency Location: No.6 West Street
No.6 West Street is the former home of Mary of Exeter, the famous WW2 pigeon who received the Dicken Medal for Gallantry for her bravery flying messages back from France, for which there is a blue plaque on the front of the house. Read more about the history of the house and Mary the Pigeon here.
Sebastià stayed in Exeter in June to work on new writing and take part in literary events in the city.
Whilst Sebastià was in Exeter…
Thanks to support and funding from the University of Exeter, Sebastià was able to hold the following workshops and readings in Exeter during his residency.
Cultural Contact as a Creative Force: A Workshop | Mon 24 Jun | Exeter Library
This workshop built on cutting-edge research from the University of Exeter exploring how cultural contact can be understood as a creative force, and focused on the stories that urban spaces can tell.
Enduring Paradise? Cultural Heritage and Cultural identity on Majorca | Mon 24 Jun | Exeter Phoenix
Exeter City of Literature writer in residence Sebastià Portell discussed how Majorca’s cultural identity is expressed on the Balearics, the role of multiculturalism in building this, and how the heart of this paradise can survive in the era of globalisation.
Sebastià Portell: in conversation | Wed 26 Jun | Bookbag
Sebastià is a winner of multiple prizes, the editor of the ground-breaking first anthology of Catalan LGBTQ poetry Amors sense casa (2018), and his first English translation Changing Trains, translated by Richard Huddleson, will be out with Fum d’Estampa press later this year.
We joined the writer during his ‘in conversation’ session at Bookbag alongside the University of Exeter’s Richard Mansell for readings in Catalan and English that spanned Sebastià’s career (including a first public showing of an excerpt translated by Richard), discussions of the various aspects of cultural and literal translation of writing, and the importance of queer identity and gender exploration in his work.
