For the ninth edition of the Nuit de la littérature (Night of Literature), organised by the Forum des Instituts Culturels Étrangers à Paris, the Institut Ramon Llull will present a reading of the book Letter to the Queen of England (Balzac éditeur, 2020) by Vicenç Pagès Jordà, translated from Catalan to French by Marie Costa. Instead of an international literary stroll through a neighbourhood of Paris – as there was until 2019 – the Nuit de la littérature is offering, for the second year in a row, a literary journey without the need to leave the house. You can explore the works of 19 authors, invited by 17 different cultural institutes, by simply visiting the FICEP website from 18:00 on Saturday 29 May.
La Nuit de la littérature began in Prague in 2006. And since 2012, FICEP (Forum of Foreign Cultural Institutes in Paris) has organised the annual Nuit de la littérature in a different area of Paris. The project has been exported abroad, seeing similar success in a number of other European cities, such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin, Milan, Sofia, Vienna and Stockholm, normally taking place between May and June.
From 6pm on Saturday 29 May, videos from each cultural institute participating in the event will be published on the FICEP website and on their YouTube channel. Lasting 20 minutes, each video will introduce the chosen author, and feature a reading of excerpts from the text in French and a short interview with the author.
Carta a la reina d'Anglaterra (Grup 62, 1997) – Lettre à la reine d’Angleterre (Balzac éditeur, 2020)
Joan Ferrer takes a look at his prolonged existence of nearly one thousand years and explains the events which have sentenced him to a punishment that is as hard as it is unjust. For this reason, he writes a letter to the Queen of England. The author of this missive has gone through all kinds of ups and downs in life, from the Middle Ages up until the turn of the third millennium. He has partaken in all vices and enjoyed all pleasures. He has visited palaces and halls, has known the wise and the powerful, has loved many women, who have spoken to him in many languages in countless countries. Now, after rolling through the centuries, he is writing a letter to Her Majesty, and not just to ask for clemency.
Vicenç Pagès
Born in Figueres in 1963, Cercles d'infinites combinacions (1990), Grandeses i misèries dels premis literaris (1992) and El món d'Horaci (1995) were some of Vicenç Pagès’ first works. His first big success, the short story Carta a la Reina d’Anglaterra (Letter to the Queen of England), came along in 1997 and was his first work to be translated to French. This was followed by several novels, short stories and essays, a number of which won awards, including the Mercè Rodoreda prize in 2004 and the Crexells prize for best novel of the year in 2009 for Els jugadors de whist.
Nuit de la littérature – FICEP
