Join us as renowed Basque author Bernardo Atxaga presents the translation of his book Exteriores del paraíso: escritos cómicos y tristes/Outside Paradise by Margaret Jull Costa, in a conversation with Dr. Gorka Mercero (University of Liverpool).

Bernardo Atxaga (Asteasu, Gipuzkoa, 1951) is considered the greatest exponent of Basque narrative and one of the most profound and original creators on the Spanish literary scene. He became famous with the book Obabakoak (1988), winner of the National Narrative Prize in 1989 and made into a film by Montxo Armendáriz as Obaba (2005). This was followed by novels such as El hombre solo (1994), winner of the National Critics‘ Prize for narrative in Basque, Esos cielos (1996), El hijo del acordeonista (2003), winner of the 2003 Critics’ Prize, Grinzane Cavour Prize in 2008, and adapted for theatre and film under the direction of Fernando Bernués; Seven Houses in France (2009), finalist in the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2012, finalist in the Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize 2012; Days of Nevada (2014), Euskadi Prize, and Houses and Tombs (2020). In 2017 he won the LiberPress International Literature Prize, in 2019 the National Prize for Spanish Literature and in 2021 the Liber Prize, all three for his work as a whole. He is also the author of poetry. His books have been translated into thirty-two languages. He is a member of the Basque Academy.

Gorka Mercero was appointed Lecturer in Basque Studies at the University of Liverpool in 2014. Prior to this, he completed a BA in Basque Philology (2000), an MA in Critical and Cultural Theory at Cardiff University (2004), and a PhD at the University of the Basque Country (2012), focusing on the intersection of memory issues and postmodernist worldviews in the works of contemporary Basque-language novelists.

He has published journal articles, book chapters, and a monograph exploring the various ways in which national and individual identities are understood between the two poles of modern essentialism and postmodernist anti-essentialism. His work examines these dynamics in the writings of contemporary Basque-language authors such as Bernardo Atxaga, Ramon Saizarbitoria, and Anjel Lertxundi, among others.

In-person event

In Spanish (with consecutive interpretation into English)

This event is organised in collaboration with Instituto Cervantes Manchester and Cervantes Chair at the University of Edinburgh.

More information: cultman@cervantes.es