Discontent in the cultural and political world over the new literary grant from Barcelona City Council

Barcelona / Guadalajara (Mexico)The announcement by Barcelona City Council of a new literary grant for Latin American authors The event held at the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) has stirred up controversy in the Catalan cultural and political world. Complaints from writers like Núria Cadenes and Melcior Comes have been joined by those from the Association of Writers in the Catalan Language (AELC), and finally, political unease: both the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Together for Catalonia (Junts per Catalunya) have called for its removal. For its part, the City Council's Deputy Mayor for Culture, Xavier Marcé, explained to Guadalajara that he finds it difficult "to see a controversy in this matter." According to Marcé, what should be done is to examine "the commitment to Catalan in relation to the overall initiatives and not just this specific action."

Stupefaction and Opposition

The AELC (Association of Writers of Catalonia) has expressed its concern regarding the Barcelona City Council's initiative to launch a literary grant exclusively for Latin American authors. The association states that the proposal excludes authors from the Catalan Countries and, therefore, exacerbates the current precarious professional situation of writers. It also emphasizes that the grant announcement does not specify which languages will be given priority. "Any call for proposals that belittles the indigenous languages of South and Mesoamerica, and obviously Catalan, will only reinforce the marginalization processes these languages are undergoing," says the AELC, which regrets that it is a "unilateral measure, not agreed upon and not even shared beforehand with the organizations." For all these reasons, the association asks the city council to "withdraw the grant and dedicate the entire allocated funds to creative works in Catalan," while insisting that "the Catalan language has no institutions other than Catalan ones to guarantee its promotion, dissemination, and continuity."

Baptized as Narrating Barcelona With a grant of 80,000 euros, the new literary scholarship announced this Sunday by Jaume Collboni, mayor of Barcelona, ​​offers a Latin American writer a three-month stay in the Catalan capital to "establish a dialogue with the city" and produce an original work based on this experience "in a free and personal style." The scholarship is promoted in collaboration with the Barcelona Library Consortium and Casa Amèrica Catalunya. It is expected to begin in January. Of the total grant, 20,000 euros will be for writing fees, 17,000 euros for living expenses (accommodation, transportation, and meals), and 43,000 euros for the rights to exploit the work, including management, translation, distribution, and communication.

What scholarships are available for Catalans?

The announcement of the grant has generated disagreements and complaints among some Catalan writers, including Melchor Comes and Núria Cadenes, who have lamented the lack of resources available to local authors for their creative work. It has also been criticized by some political groups, who have called for its withdrawal. The president of the JuntsxBCN municipal group, Jordi Martí Galbis, emphasized that, given the current linguistic emergency, the city council's grants "should prioritize writers in the Catalan language and the Catalan language." The president of the Republican group, Elisenda Alamany, stated that "just as a tourist visiting for a few days cannot possibly understand it, no writer can represent the identity and soul of Barcelona by doing a three-month Erasmus exchange paid for by the City Council." What grant options are available to Catalan authors? The Barcelona City Council offers the Barcelona Crea grants, each worth 6,000 euros. Creators from diverse fields—from performing arts to music, literature, and translation—are eligible. Among these are the Montserrat Roig literary creation grants, which are open to applicants writing in Catalan or Spanish. In 2025, 27 grants were awarded to writers such as Pol Guasch, Ramon Mas, Marta Marín Dòmine, Carla Gracia, and Marta Pessarrodona.

The Institution of Catalan Letters offers four grant programs for authors and translators writing in Catalan. The most generous is a grant for established authors: 50 grants of €10,000 each are available. There are also grants of €3,000 each for six emerging authors.

Catalan writers can also apply for grants offered by the Institut Ramon Llull (a consortium comprised of the Catalan Government, the Balearic Islands Government, and the Barcelona City Council) to undertake one-month international residencies at partner centers in Switzerland and Berlin (two places available). These are in-kind grants to cover accommodation, meals, and the cost of residency activities, while travel expenses can be covered by a separate mobility grant. In 2025, Ramon Llull allocated a total of €27,692 for the residencies of six Catalan writers. This year's recipients are Marta Carnicero, Andrea Genovart, Marta Pera Cucurell, Mònica Batet, Marina Sáez, and Maria del Mar Grimalt. The authors do not receive any payment from the Institut Llull, and in most cases, not even from the residency programs. Apart from these Llull agreements, there are other international residencies for writers, which are also unpaid. In some exceptional cases, the foreign centers that have selected their projects pay them fees of around 600 euros.

In the case of the Faber residency in Olot, foreign and local creators from all disciplines (189 artists in 2025) who come to work in Catalonia for periods of 7-10 days are subsidized in kind. They are offered accommodation, half-board, and activities, and are asked to participate in an event upon their return to the community. None of the Catalan grants involve a commission to work on a specific theme, but rather support for the writer's own literary project.

The City Council's position in the wake of the controversy

Xavier Marcé addressed the controversy surrounding the grant program. "The Barcelona City Council's commitment to Catalan is very clear," he said. "In addition to the Montserrat Roig grants, which have an annual budget of €150,000 and were established ten years ago, we have a writers' residency at Vil·la Joana and we work with the Catalan Language Publishers' Association." Marcé also noted that, "as can be seen with the program" they presented in Guadalajara, "70 percent of authors write in Catalan," and that, in connection with their participation in the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL), the City Council has committed "to a policy of translating Catalan talent," because it wants "authors who write in this language" to reach a wider audience.