The Instituto Cervantes in Manchester presents the series “Talks on Contemporary Catalan Literature”, coordinated by writer Xavier Mas Craviotto, to explore the new way of Catalan literature. This second session will be dedicated to the work of writer Jordi Larios, providing a space for dialogue and reflection on his literary background and works.
Jordi Larios is the author of four poetry collections: Home sol (Quaderns Crema, 1984), El cop de la destral (Cafè Central / Eumo Editorial, 2006), Rendezvous (Cafè Central / Eumo Editorial, 2013), and En vespres grocs (Cafè Central / Eumo Editorial, 2020). Most of his poetry has been translated into English under the collective title On Yellow Evenings (Fum d’Estampa, 2023).
He has translated works by Robert Coover, Henry James, Dorothy Parker, Anthony Powell, Saki, and Oscar Wilde into Catalan. He has also translated short stories by O. Henry and Saki into Spanish.
Xavier Mas Craviotto (Navàs, 1996) studied Catalan Philology and a postgraduate degree in Linguistic Consultancy and Editorial Services at the University of Barcelona. For four years, he taught Catalan language and culture at the University of Bristol, UK. He is co-founder of Com ho diria, a digital platform specialising in Catalan slang for young people, and is a member of the board of directors of the Associació d’Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (AELC). He has been the youngest writer so far to win the Documenta Narrative Prize, the year 2018, for the novel La mort lenta (2019), and a few years later he published his second novel, La pell del món (2023). He is also the author of the poetry collections Renills de cavall negre (2019), with which he was the first winner of the Certamen Art Jove Salvador Iborra 2018, La gran nàusea (2021) and La llum subterrània (2023), which won him the Ausiàs March Prize, one of the most prestigious awards for poetry in Catalan. In the field of linguistic dissemination, he is co-author of (2023), an essay on youth slang and colloquial Catalan. He has published stories in collective anthologies and in several newspapers such as La Vanguardia, Diari ARA or Regió 7, and has participated in media and literary events in the Catalan-speaking territories and also abroad, such as the United Kingdom or Panama.