First-person Stories
What is it about a novel, poem, play or film that captivates us as readers and viewers? Often, it is the author’s ability to draw us into their own personal universe. We’re dedicating this list to creators who have visited us at the CCCB to tell us their first-person stories, autobiographical accounts that, in many cases, become universal.
Virginie Despentes
Talk with Jordi Nopca and Christina Rosenvinge
French writer Virginie Despentes is one of modern feminism’s most vigorous voices. Despentes, who left home and gave up her studies at 17 to become a prostitute and a punk, is the author of the novel Baise-moi (Rape Me), the Vernon Subutex trilogy and the autobiographical ...
The I in the Internet
Jia Tolentino
The writer Jia Tolentino started surfing the Internet with Geocities, forums and GIFs. Years later, the battle between social media networks all vying for our constant attention has completely changed the scenario. In this advance excerpt from Falso espejo. Reflexiones sobre el autoengaño, co...
Gaël Faye
A Conversation with Xavier Aldekoa
French-Burundian rapper and novelist Gaël Faye speaks with journalist Xavier Aldekoa, Africa correspondent for La Vanguardia. The search for the lost paradise of childhood is one of the central themes of Faye’s first novel Small Country (Hogarth, 2018), in which ...
Nancy Campbell and Alicia Kopf
Thoughts from the Cold
The poet and artist Nancy Campbell speaks with the writer Alicia Kopf about her fascination with the Arctic world and with the landscapes of cold, which are now so threatened by the climate emergency.
Caitlin Moran
A Conversation with Marta Salicrú
Not content with being the most hilarious, foul-mouthed and autobiographical columnist in the British press, or with her bestselling essay How to be a Woman (Ebury Press, 2011), Caitlin Moran had to go and write a great novel, How to Build a Girl (Ebury Press, 2014). The book is a thinly-disguised first-person account of her childhood in a large working-class family, her first steps in the music press, and the trials and tribulations involved in piecing together the being known as Caitlin Moran. ...
Rafael Chirbes
Rubble and Progress
In this conference, writer Rafael Chirbes revisits his childhood Valencia, seen through the eyes of a child who is just starting to discover the city. The author pays tribute to a time before real estate speculation and its desolate landscapes, the leitmotif of the novels Crematorio ...
Hanif Kureishi
A Conversation with Alicia Kopf
The British writer Hanif Kureishi, author of books such as The Buddha of Suburbia and Something to Tell You, and screenwriter for films such as Sammy and Rosie Get Laid and My Beautiful Laundrette, talks with Alicia Kopf about his literary career and his novel The Nothing.
Paula Bonet
The Pregnant Body Without a Foetus
The story of the feminist revolution bravely shows the taboos that women have faced. The art of Paula Bonet is a clear example when it comes to focusing on the dramatic experiences of women, previously silenced by heteropatriarchal culture. Bonet’s literature, as well as exposing and ...
Maria Manonelles, Montse Batalla and Laura Fernández
Boges
Two comic book artists who take mental illness (in the first person) as the theme of two new works: Maria Manonelles, with her comic Dormo molt (2018), and Montse Batalla, with Manicomio (2019). They talk with journalist and writer Laura Fernández.Mental ...
Junot Díaz and Iván de la Nuez
Nerds, reggaeton and superheroes
Trujillo, salsa and comics. And the books borrowed from public libraries that changed the destiny of a writer born in Santo Domingo who has made history in US literature. Junot Díaz, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, looks ...
A morning with Nadia Ghulam
Being a Refugee: Surviving in Adversity
Nadia Ghulam, an Afghan refugee, writer, and activist now residing in Barcelona, talks about her own life story and her experiences when speaking about it with others.