Poems and Short Fiction from Barcelona

Poetry, short fiction, essays and translation by people writing from Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia. Pieces are signed and dated, and posted by whoever wrote them, in Catalan, Spanish, English or whatever language they use. Some are here in full; others are an extract with a link to the book.

Bilingualism changes how a page reads. One author can have a poem in Catalan, a story in Spanish and their own version of the text in the other language, and all three count as their work. When a piece is a translation, the original and its author are named, which is what a reader wants to know first.

A link to a piece opens the whole of it, with no wall and no sign-up, which is what lets a poem travel through a reading group or a mailing list without losing anything on the way. The writer's page is just as open, with whatever contact details they listed, and writing to them happens off the site.

Pieces take audio and video alongside the text, which matters more here than it sounds: a great deal of the poetry written in this city is made to be said out loud, at readings in bookshops and small back rooms. The read version of a poem is often the one its author would rather you heard.