A few years ago, Irene Larraza, director of the Etxepare Basque Institute, said that the work of Basque creators can nowadays coexist as equal with that of top-level artists from all over the world. This is an affirmation that seems to be shared today by anyone who has acquired even a minimum familiarity with Basque art and literature, especially contemporary ones.

It is an affirmation that contains, on the other hand, an extraordinary fact, namely that an overall meagre and neglected tradition, expressed also in a language despised for decades, if not centuries, and subjected to all kinds of discrimination, has been able to develop just in the period of the last 40 or 50 years to the point of today being able to offer its consumers – and in abundance – what the best artistic creation always strives to produce: delight, knowledge, emotion, surprise, consolation. Basque literature has also travelled this fruitful path.
The series is coordinated by Dr. Gorka Mercero (University of Liverpool) and the second talk is with the writer Hrkaitz Cano.
Harkaitz Cano (San Sebastian, Spain, 1975). He has tackled almost all genres, from novels (Twist, La voz del Faquir, both of which won the Critics’ Prize for the best book in Basque) to poetry (Compro oro, Gente que trabaja en los tejados) as well as short stories (Circo de invierno, El turista perpetuo) and theatre (Los papeles de Sísifo). His work has been translated into a dozen languages, and he has translated into Basque authors such as Sylvia Plath, Hanif Kureishi, Raymond Carver, Anne Sexton and Allen Ginsberg.
In Spanish.