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What makes speakers of world languages like English or Spanish choose a minority language as a literary medium? How does a language without a state, hemmed in by powerful languages like French and Spanish, attract non-native speakers and professional writers? Is globalization capable of reinforcing as well as eroding traditional cultures? If so, under what conditions? Or is it rather the association of Catalan with modernity and cosmopolitanism what has permitted it to survive despite long-term persecution into the 21st century? Five writers born in five different countries speak to these questions from their own experience.

Participants

Najat El Hachmi (Morocco 1979). Author of Jo també sóc catalana and L'Últim Patriarca (Ramon Llull literary award 2008). She contributes to El Periódico de Catalunya.

Patricia Gabancho (Buenos Aires, 1952) is a journalist and non-fiction writer. She has published some twenty books on literature, theater, history, urban studies, sociology, centered on Catalan reality and the city of Barcelona. She is the speaker for the board of the Catalan PEN Club, in charge of the section on linguistic rights, diversity, and translation.

Matthew Tree (London, 1958), author of the novel Private Country and the autobiographical book Calling Card. He has published in Catalan: Fora de lloc and Privilegiat, novels, Ella ve quan vol, a collection of short stories and CAT. Un anglès viatja per Catalunya per veure si existeix, a travel book, the autobiography Memòries! 1974-1989. Dels quinze anys fins als trenta. Londres-Barcelona, Contra la monarquia, Aniversari. Quatre reflexions sense cap mena d'importància després de passar exactament vint anys entre els catalans, La puta feina, and La vida després de Déu. He contributes to Catalonia Today, the AVUI newspaper and the Times Literary Supplement.

Simona Skrabec (Ljubljana, Slovenia, 1968). BA in Comparative Literature and German Philology, Doctoral degree with a dissertation on Els marcs identitaris en el cas de Centreeuropa (2002). She is the autor of L'estirp de la solitud (Josep Carner award for literary theory), L'atzar de la lluita, and she has edited Carrers de Frontera, a collective project on Catalan-German relations.

Sam Abrams (Beckley, West Virginia, 1952). B.A. in Hispanic Studies by the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Has taught in several institutions, including Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. He is the author of Calculations ... , Oda a un ase i altres poemes, Tot el desig a peu de plana. He has edited several anthologies and has translated about twenty volumes of Catalan poetry into English and numerous poets from the English language to Catalan. He published the essay Tàpies escriu on the 85th anniversary of the Catalan artist. He contributes regularly to the newspapers Avui and El Mundo (Catalonia edition) and to the cultural supplements of both newspapers.