Agnès Marquès wins the Ramon Llull with a novel inspired by a viral news story

Barcelona"I'm still processing this milestone: I never would have thought that such an award could cross my path," he said this Friday at noon. Agnès Marquès Pujolar (Palma, 1979) during the press conference in which it was announced that she was the author chosen by the jury as the winner of the Ramon Llull 2026 prize, endowed with 60,000 euros. The Second Life of Geneva Vern It is the second novel by the journalist, who currently directs the program Catalonia night from Catalunya Ràdio and who debuted as a narrator with Nobody knows I'm here (Column, 2022). It will be published on February 25th in Column (and in Destino in Spanish).

"Geneva, the main protagonist of my novel, is a Catalan journalist who, without really wanting to, finds herself writing an article, with the spirit of clickbait"It's about the intimate affair of three people, a purely sensational story that took place more than 9,000 kilometers from Catalonia, in a small town in Texas," Marquès explained. "When the news goes so viral that Ginebra even wrote this article from Barcelona, ​​she's so shaken that she feels the need to meet the people involved. She travels to the American town and is forced to see the world differently, on a journey of discovery that the reader will also undertake." The author of The Second Life of Geneva Vern —who chose that name for the protagonist because she would have wanted her daughter to have that name— asserts that "the novel shows the insurmountable distance between reality and truth, between facts and narratives: there is an unbridgeable gap, which is sometimes small, and other times not so much."

From Benicàssim to Texas

"Journalism is an ideal setting for conflict within the novel to pose a dilemma that challenges us all: what do we do with other people's lives when they are in our hands? And how do we treat them, especially when we don't know them?" asked Marquès, who debuted as a novelist with Nobody knows I'm here while presenting the program Ground flooralso on TV3. The story wasSet in a fictionalized Benicàssim festival and starring four friends approaching forty, the story explores, through four inner journeys, the fear of change, of leaving someone, of being brave with one's own desires. "When I finished Nobody knows I'm here The story had been on my mind for a while. The Second Life of Geneva Vern “It’s a novel based on a real event,” he commented. “In March 2014, a story appeared in a newspaper in the small Texas town of Hemphill, in which a woman congratulated her husband and his lover on the child they were expecting. The story went so viral that it reached us. How could it be that I had access to so much private information about people I knew nothing about until then?” At that time, Marquès was presenting the Weekend news from TV3 and also directed the program Ordinary people“This story raised so many questions for me that I went there to find out what impact it had had. It has been a privilege to be able to write after experiencing such a different and distant place, located in the heart of the United States, right in the Bible Belt. Without having gone there, this novel wouldn't exist.”

Besides Geneva, the other main character in the novel is Emma, ​​“the lover who appears in the viral news story.” “Love is the moral testing ground of the book,” she reveals. The Second Life of Geneva Vern She proposes to women the right to opacity, to be contradictory and questionable, to make decisions that don't always need to be justified." Marquès reminded everyone that we live in a culture where the power of storytelling is very important and where "we confuse explaining everything with being honest." "Perhaps sometimes the most ethical thing is to remain silent," she suggested: "We treat others worse and have less empathy. We receive information and become broadcasters of news we don't know if we can trust. Rumors have always made me uncomfortable. How do we know that what we've been told is true? I like certainty and things that have been verified."

During the press conference, some of the jury members expressed what elements convinced them about the novel. Carles Casajuana, who won the Llull Prize with The last man who spoke Catalan (Planeta, 2009), has said that "the central theme of the novel is to what extent we should keep secrets out of honesty." Estel Solé, winner of the previous edition of the award with This piece of life (Planeta, 2025), has stated that "beyond the surface of journalism, the novel impacts you and makes you rethink everything you've read by the time you reach the end." She added: "I felt very personally challenged by the two protagonists. To what extent is withholding information good, and what ethical philosophy does it exude?" Gerard Quintana, winner of the Llull Prize with The man who lived twice (2021), has made the following statements: "It has been a year with a good level of finalists. There were some delirious ones, and we had a good time reading them. In the case of Agnès's book, starting from this surely banal news, there is a whole process of discovery, and I like that not everything is black and white. A legitimate deception."

Since Planeta created the Ramon Llull Prize in 1981, it has been awarded to authors such as Joan Perucho, Pere Gimferrer, Carmen Riera, Terenci Moix, Josep Maria Ballarín, Najat Hachmi, Núria Amat, Silvia Soler, Xavier Bosch, Víctor Amela, Pilar.

AWARDS CALENDAR BEFORE SANT JORDI

The Josep Pla Prize, along with Christmas, is the earliest literary award of the year. Endowed with 10,000 euros, it is presented every January 6th at a dinner in the Hotel Palace – formerly the Ritz – in Barcelona, ​​and in 2026 it went to to the philosopher, theologian and historian Francesc Torralba, who has written the essay Anatomy of HopeThe book explores "how we can revive meaning, how horizons are built, and why we need that unwavering confidence that keeps us standing despite everything." It will be available in early February.

While the Pla Prize jury opted for an author with a long and established career, the Nadal Prize jury made a very different choice. Following the Catalan pseudonym of Oriol Arce, who had submitted his work for the prize—worth 30,000 euros—with The City of Dead LightsThe young Andalusian author was there. David Uclés, who has achieved one of the most resounding successes of recent years thanks to her third novel, The peninsula of empty houses (Siruela), which has sold over 200,000 copies. In the new novel, a group of characters from different eras come together to bring the Catalan capital out of the darkness during the early postwar years.

Carlota Gurt has won the eleventh Anagrama Books Prize with The moorswhich he describes as "a novel about climatic, emotional, professional, and sexual drought through two characters, Fausto and Ramona, whose lives we follow in parallel until, improbably, they meet." Awarded €12,000, the winning book will go on sale on March 25.

Awarded 25,000 euros in both Catalan and Spanish, both Narrative Windows awards The results will be announced on February 25th. The three finalists in Catalan are Toni Sala, Irene Pujadas, and Jordi Lara, and the three in Spanish are Celso Castro, Silvana Vogt, and Tamara Silva Bernaschina.

With the aim of "recognizing and showcasing comics as a cultural discipline with its own identity," the Finestres Foundation has expanded this year's comic awards to three, each worth €25,000. These are the prize for best comic in Catalan, the prize for best work, and the prize for best children's and young adult comic, which will be announced on the same day as the narrative awards.

In November, Òmnium Cultural announced that from then on, the Night of Saint Lucia would be moved to March and would encompass more than a dozen literary prizes. During the new Catalan Literature NightThe Sant Jordi Prize, which will be awarded on March 14 in Barcelona, ​​has increased its prize money from €60,000 to €75,000 and will once again include a finalist category with a €10,000 prize. Past winners include Jordi Puntí, Gemma Ruiz Palà, and Víctor García Tur.

Established in 1959, the Carles Riba Poetry Prize is one of the oldest and most prestigious awards in Catalan literature. This year's winner will be announced during the Night of Catalan Letters, and recent recipients include authors such as Blanca Luz Vidal, Mireia Calafell, Antoni Vidal Ferrando, Jordi Llavina and Miquel Desclot. It is endowed with 5,000 euros.

Short stories will also be recognized during the new Night of Catalan Letters. The winner of the 29th Mercè Rodoreda Short Story Prize, worth €6,000, will be announced during the literary festival. The last three editions have awarded prizes to debut writers: in 2024 it went to Elephants, of Toni Güell; in 2023 for Forgive me for wanting it so muchby Carme Serna Far, and in 2022 for A wild urge to scream, by Marc Vintró Balcells.

The jury of the Òmnium prize The prize of 25,000 euros will be awarded to the best novel of the year written in Catalan. It will be announced during the Night of Catalan Letters, and so far the ten finalists have been revealed, including Antònia Carré-Pons, Llort, Miquel de Palol and Alba Dalmau.

The children's and young adult novel categories will be covered at the Night of Catalan Letters with the awarding of the Folch i Torres and Joaquim Ruyra prizes. These are endowed with 6,000 and 4,000 euros, respectively. The most recent winner of the Josep Maria Folch i Torres prize was Joan Berlanga with The extraordinary life of a dog in the last, and the one from Ruyra, Mariona Bessa, by The rise of the rebels.

Awarded for a decade now, the Montserrat Franquesa Prize is endowed with 4,000 euros and, so far, has recognized the work of translators such as Feliu FormosaMireia Vargas Urpí, Joan Ferrarons i Llagostera, and Joana Castells Savall. This year it will be made public to coincide with the new Night of Catalan Letters.

During the March 14th celebration organized by Òmnium, three more newly created literary prizes will be announced: the Vinyeta-Ficomic Prize, worth €2,000, which will reward an unpublished comic; the Àngel Guimerà Prize for the best unpublished dramatic work, worth €15,000; and Lo Somni, a prize for emerging authors worth €10,000, sponsored by Penguin Random House. A fourth new award dedicated to thought is still being developed, and no details have yet been released.

The dystopian story of survival and superstition will arrive in bookstores during the month of March., with which Irene Rubio has won the latest edition of the Documenta prize. You will be the valley It will be published by L'Altra, and joins the list of winners of the award during the last decade, including Maria Arimany, Laia Viñas and Xavier Mas Craviotto.

El Casero is one of the oldest literary prizes in Girona, and this year – in its 45th edition – it has awarded the prize to the new novel by Roger Vilà Padró, Hortonedawhich Univers will publish at the end of January and which the jury has described as "a solid, powerful novel, masterfully and intensely woven, that shuns both banal spiritualism and nihilistic transcendence." Universo will also publish the two finalist novels, Nora's Gardens, by Benet Salellas, and Weightless, by Ramon Macià.