"Each time there are fewer excuses for not reading in Catalan"
The Week of the Book in Catalan, which will be celebrated from September 18 to 27, will count on the participation of 282 imprints and will program 350 activities appealing to a transversal public
BarcelonaYear after year, the Week of Catalan Books is growing in every sense. In 2025, sales figures climbed to a record 820,000 euros – 15% more than the previous edition – it received more than 100,000 visitors and occupied 8,900 m2, with 94 stands, 312 exhibitors, and the presence of 265 publishing houses from all Catalan-speaking territories. This year, the venue on Passeig Lluís Companys in Barcelona — a location the Week reclaimed during the America's Cup year, due to the sporting competition which prevented it from being held at Moll de la Fusta — will expand to 9,000 m2, will feature 98 stands, 332 exhibitors, and 282 publishing houses.
The event, which will be held from September 18 to 27 and has a budget of 700,000 euros, is one of the most anticipated by tens of thousands of readers, not only for the flood of new releases presented there, but also to once again witness the growing breadth of catalogs. "There are fewer and fewer excuses not to read in Catalan," stated Oriol Magrinyà, president of the Association of Publishers in the Catalan Language – also known as editors.cat – during the presentation at the Ateneu Barcelonès of the 44th edition of the Week. "The Week has gone from being a major sector event aimed at literary enthusiasts to becoming a major city event. Beyond the first-class European industry that is Catalan fiction books and children's and young adult literature, the publishing sector is increasingly complete: there is a good offering in essays, cooking, travel guides, and scientific innovation, to name just a few fields," says Magrinyà.
At the 44th edition of the Week, whose motto is Much to see, much to read, a hundred new works by authors writing in Catalan will be presented, including Laura Gost, Oriol Canals, Albert Om, Biel Mesquida, Ramon Mas, and Ester Invernon, but it will also be visited by international authors such as Colm Tóibín, Adania Shibli, Clare Pollard, and Leonardo San Pietro. As every year, the organization of the Week will combine current events with the promotion of classics: this September sees a new edition of the epic poem Canigó, by Jacint Verdaguer, edited by Joan Santanach, an anthology of Joan Vinyoli at Flâneur, and a collection of political essay texts by Joan Salvat-Papasseit published by Veles e Vents.
Improving the visitor experience
"We love to coincide with the La Mercè festivities and to be able to continue on Passeig Lluís Companys – assures Cristina Domènech, director of the Week –. In addition to increasing the audience every year and seeing how book sales also grow, one of the key points for us is to improve the visitor experience. In this edition there will be a stage in the central space and two on the sides, in the format of a large tent of 100 m"2, a familiar setting, a space with storytelling and children's workshops, the language tent and the large APPEC tent, where more than 240 titles in Catalan currently published can be found, an impressive figure". Domènech has announced that among this year's new features is the space Book trades, "conceived as a point of dissemination of the different trades linked to the book. In this first edition, the spotlight will be on libraries".
The 44th Week also "aims to promote the use of the language in the digital sphere through conversations with influencers and podcasts". In this regard, every afternoon there will be a conversation between Bet Molina and a digital literary influencer ("booktuber) and live podcasts will be made, among which will be the one of Meanwhile (under the responsibility of Bernat Reher, Berta Galofré, Joan Rius, and Carlos Francesch), Tandem Club (with Marina Porras and Juliana Canet), What happened to you (Albert Om and Joan Maria Pou) and The Back Cover, in which Clàudia Rius will interview Ramon Solsona, winner of this edition's Trajectòria award of the Week.
In the tributes section, the acts to commemorate the centenary of the writer and translator Ramon Folch i Camarasa, the conversation with Feliu Formosa –who, on the verge of celebrating their 92nd birthday, publishes From the peak of the years (Publications of the Abbey of Montserrat)– and the memory of Anna Fité, screenwriter and writer specialized in children's and young adult literature who died in January at the age of 67.
