Faced with the sheer volume of books being published all the time, two eyes seem insufficient to take them all in. But perhaps even four would not be enough. Because while we finish that novel we had left unfinished on the nightstand, new ones have already appeared; while we discover one author, others establish themselves and find their place in the literary world; and while browsing the shelves of a bookstore, we decide what to read next, new books keep arriving and claiming their space.
And among these books that keep claiming their space, more and more are being published in Catalan. New voices, new imprints, and new stories are making the world of books in Catalan broader and more diverse year after year. Every September, this literary universe leaves the shelves behind to meet readers at La Setmana del Llibre en Català.
In its 44th edition, under the motto “Much to See, Much to Read,” the literary event once again puts books in Catalan at the heart of a great “citizen festival,” as Editors.cat president Oriol Magrinyà puts it. And it does so with an especially ambitious edition: 282 publishing imprints represented across 332 exhibitors will fill the 9,000-square-meter stretch of Passeig de Lluís Companys, between Arc de Triomf and Ciutadella Park, for ten days, from September 18 to 27.
A large deployment that is hard to grasp with a single glance. Precisely for this reason, the graphic campaign for this edition of La Setmana del Llibre en Català carries this idea with a figure as unsettling as it is expressive: a girl with four eyes stars on the poster. Four eyes to look at everything that the Catalan publishing landscape makes available to us at once. Four eyes that, even so, may still not be enough to retain everything.
Because literature in Catalan is broad enough to force us to look in more than one direction. In fact, this year's La Setmana will feature fiction and poetry alongside essays, politics, cooking, crime and historical novels, science fiction, dystopia, comics, manga, theater, and travel guides. A diversity that reflects how much the offer in Catalan has expanded in recent years and that makes it increasingly easy to find the reading we are looking for in this language, whatever the genre, author, or story that interests us.
But this variety is not limited to new releases —which will not be lacking, from authors who take advantage of September to present a new book, such as Albert Om, Laura Gost, Ester Invernon, or Ada Castells—, but also embraces translations, reissues, and recoveries that further expand the map of readings in Catalan.
Thus, alongside new releases, La Setmana will also give space to titles such as Homer's Odyssey —which is back in the news due to Christopher Nolan's new film adaptation—, as well as works by Stefan Zweig, Luigi Pirandello, or Ryu Murakami, and recoveries of classic Catalan authors such as Jacint Verdaguer, Joan Salvat-Papasseit, or Joan Vinyoli. New releases, reissues, and classics that will come from 282 publishing houses from Catalonia, but also from the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands, and Andorra.
The great showcase of literature in Catalan
But this diversity and breadth of literature in Catalan is not only measured in square meters, books on display, publishing houses, or attendance figures —last year, more than 100,000 people visited La Setmana, and the organization hopes to repeat this influx this year—. The strength of this event also projects beyond the ten days of programming, in the way it contributes to giving visibility to books in Catalan and reinforcing their presence during the rest of the year.
In a moment that Magrinyà describes as "of linguistic emergency", La Setmana wants to act as a "counterpoint" and a show of optimism: a space that puts before readers the variety and vitality of an increasingly broad and diverse literary landscape. But this vitality does not only remain in the shop window, but La Setmana also wants books to reach the hands of readers and for this visibility to translate into more interest in books in Catalan.
The organization insists, however, that the success of La Setmana is not measured only —nor mainly— in terms of sales. Its main value, Magrinyà points out, is the visibility it gives to books in Catalan and the ability to connect readers with an editorial offer that often remains more hidden during the year.
La Setmana wants to act as a "counterpoint" to "linguistic emergency" and a show of optimism: a space that puts before readers the variety and vitality of an increasingly broad and diverse literary landscape
This does not mean, however, that the commercial impact is minor. Magrinyà places the event as the third major point of sale for books of the year, after Sant Jordi —which last year generated 26.7 million euros in turnover and exceeded two million copies sold— and Christmas. And the effect of La Setmana goes beyond the titles sold at the stands on Passeig de Lluís Companys: the visibility it generates also contributes to activating the sale of books in Catalan in bookstores everywhere, as the president of Editors.cat has remarked.
The challenge of making Catalan a reading habit
But the challenge does not end with making books in Catalan more visible or expanding their offer. The challenge is to ensure that this presence becomes a habit and that Catalan is also a habitual language of reading, especially among young people. Today, approximately three out of ten books sold in Catalonia are in Catalan, a proportion that has grown slightly in recent years.
The reading figures, however, show that Catalan is not yet the majority language among readers, and that the gap is especially significant among young people. Although 73.9% of those over 14 read at least one book every quarter, only 33.9% declare Catalan as their habitual reading language. Among young people aged 14 to 24, this proportion drops even further: to 27.2%.
For this reason, making the book in Catalan reach more young readers is precisely one of the axes that La Setmana wants to reinforce through a program that is spread across eleven spaces and stages. In fact, among these eleven spaces there will be three stages dedicated exclusively to young and adult audiences, and a family space for children up to 12 years old and the Petita Lectura.
In addition, one of the great novelties of this edition precisely reinforces this commitment to young audiences: the Digital Creation House is incorporated into the program, which will bring together booktokers and creators of literary content and will host proposals such as the live reading club of Juliana Canet and Marina Porras. On the stages there will also be space for a more relaxed literary conversation, with activities such as in-depth interviews by the team of the Mentrimentres podcast.
The young audience, however, is not the only protagonist. This year, the program also incorporates new proposals such as the Book Trades tent, dedicated in this first edition to the world of libraries, and maintains one of the activities most linked to the meeting between authors and readers: signings. More than 200 authors will pass through the stands to sign copies, including prominent names in Catalan literature such as Llucia Ramis, Ramon Solsona, distinguished this year with the Trajectòria Award granted by the event, Màrius Serra —the other award winner of La Setmana, in this case, with the Difusió Award—, Empar Moliner or Regina Rodríguez-Sirvent, who will share space with international authors such as Clare Pollard, Colm Tóibín or the Palestinian writer Adania Shibli.
This year, moreover, La Setmana's ambition does not end on Passeig de Lluís Companys: the organization will launch a pilot plan to take some events outside Barcelona, to bookstores and other spaces, with the aim of extending the impact of the event beyond the ten days of September. All this, with a budget of about 700,000 euros, of which between 65% and 70% of the income comes from the private sector, mainly from the fees paid by exhibitors and sponsors. The goal is for La Setmana to be much more than a ten-day event and to make visible, throughout the year, a diverse and increasingly broad literature in Catalan.
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