As with epic adventures, it all started with a simple whatsapp: "I've had an idea," Pau Emili Muñoz wrote to four friends. He came from the activism of Joves de Mallorca per la Llengua and wanted to make it bigger. "We are tired of having to defend the language from the trenches, because we keep retreating a little. Taking the initiative is more exhausting but more rewarding. It's time to take a step forward," he argues.

"What peace," says the mayor Jaume Collboni, as he enters the Documenta bookstore in Barcelona this Friday morning. Documenta bookstore in Barcelona. The Barcelona City Council has announced the first support plan for bookstores, fifteen days before Sant Jordi. The global allocation of the measure is 850,000 euros for 2026, and it is expected to continue. The mayor has been clear and direct: "Buy in bookstores, don't buy on Amazon. By buying in a small bookstore you are doing more than buying a book, you are defending a model of the city, a way of relating and that the profits stay in the neighborhood. We defend the right to stay in our neighborhoods and we help people like booksellers, our neighbors, friends, people like Èric, and not a man who has yachts sailing the Mediterranean," said Collboni. His words may recall those of Anne Hidalgo, then mayor of Paris, who said during the pandemic so that bookstores could reopen.

"What peace," says mayor Jaume Collboni, entering the Documenta bookstore in Barcelona this Friday morning. Documenta bookstore in Barcelona. The Barcelona City Council has announced the first support plan for bookstores, fifteen days before Sant Jordi. The global allocation for the measure is 850,000 euros for 2026, and it is expected to have continuity. The mayor has been clear and unambiguous: "Buy in bookstores, don't buy on Amazon. By buying in a small bookstore you are doing more than buying a book, you are defending a model of city, a way of relating and that the profits stay in the neighborhood. We defend the right to stay in the neighborhoods and we help people like booksellers, our neighbors, friends, people like Èric, and not a man who has yachts sailing the Mediterranean," said Collboni. His words may recall those of Anne Hidalgo, then mayor of Paris, who said during the pandemic for bookstores to be able to reopen.

Justice is one of the black spots of the language: only 14% of judges have a basic level of Catalan. This not only means that, by default, the linguistic choice of users in the courts is not respected, but also that the sentences written in Catalan are minimal, less than 7%, according to the radiography of Catalan in justice made public in 2022. The figures have never moved from the minimums. According to the latest Linguistic Uses Survey of 2023, only 25% used Catalan in justice bodies, the lowest percentage of all public administrations.

It is not applicable. This is the official response that this Tuesday the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, gave to the PNB regarding the temporary transfer of the Guernica to the Basque Country, which the Vitoria government has formally requested on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the first Basque executive and the bombing of Gernika. "My duty as minister is to guarantee access to culture, but at the same time to preserve heritage," Urtasun replied to a question from PNB senator Igotz López, closing the door to transporting the painting to the Guggenheim in Bilbao because technicians from the Reina Sofía museum advise against it. A transfer that in any case would only be for half a year: the executive's request is to have it from October 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027.

In the first quarter of the year, Marc Artigau (Barcelona, 1984) donned the playwright's hat and premiered the comedy about Alzheimer's Una festa a Roma, directed by Clara Segura at the Teatre Lliure. In the second quarter, for Sant Jordi, the playwright puts on the narrator's hat and presents the collection of short stories Aquest serà el nostre pou (Empúries), which has just won the Mercè Rodoreda prize at the Catalan Letters Night.

There is only one essay that can bring together a handful of Baroque nuns, the Kardashians, the Me Too movement, the Holy Inquisition, TikTok, lesbian love, and academic life in Providence, Rhode Island, on the same pages. Instrucción de novicias (Blackie Books) is the first popular essay by Doctors in Hispanic Literature Ana Garriga and Carmen Urbita, the creators of the successful podcast Las Hijas de Felipe, and it has been an editorial phenomenon even before its publication.

The absolute freedom and radical modernity of Biel Mesquida's (Castellón de la Plana, 1947) literature have earned him the 58th Catalan Letters Honorary Prize 2026, the highest recognition for the career of a Catalan writer, awarded by Òmnium Cultural. It is the definitive consecration of an author who has pursued overflowing beauty, experimented with language, fled from convention, and relentlessly scrutinized the abysses of his soul and our world. A Mallorcan born in the Valencian Community and published in Catalonia—and beloved everywhere—he thus culminates a fifty-year career as a poet, novelist, essayist, critic, and professor.

There's a rule we apply with friends: if The first year is a successThe second becomes a tradition. The second edition of the Anna Pérez Pagès Prize for Cultural Journalism has established itself as the only place and the only time in which anyone celebrates the importance of culture and the existence of those of us who explain it; today they would call it the secure site of cultural journalists, just as the red sofa ofArctic, the memorable Betevé program directed by the honoree, which He left us prematurely two years ago. If tradition is a celebration, the ritual of an award ceremony serves not only to remember Anna, but also to put her on our calendars, just like we used to do when we met up with her.

If you see them together, you can imagine what their weekend vermouth sessions were like. Jordi Puntí, Miqui Otero, and Irene Pujadas shared a radio storytelling segment on The supplement from Catalunya Radio. The idea, which originated with Puntí, has a literary basis: apparently, Paul Auster asked listeners of American National Public Radio to send in their stories, and he, with minimal editing, would create a narrative and read it on air. The Catalan version of the experiment was titled It seems unbelievable. The idea was for listeners to send one-minute anecdotes to Catalan public radio via WhatsApp, which writers would then capture and, like a literary machine, transform into short stories.

Catalan is plummeting among young people in Barcelona. Only 17.8% of citizens between 15 and 34 years old primarily speak Catalan in their lives; one in four young people (25%) predominantly speak Catalan if we include bilinguals. The decline of Catalan over the last ten years is abrupt: in 2015, 37.7% of young people stated that Catalan was their everyday language, a figure that dropped to 28.4% in 2020. By 2025, it will fall another ten points. In other words, Catalan among young people in Barcelona has fallen twenty points in ten years. Three out of ten young people never speak it: there are more young people who never speak Catalan than young people who speak it regularly. Spanish is clearly the predominant language for conversations among young people, although 7% primarily use a third language, according to the 2025 Barcelona Youth Survey, conducted with 1,500 people aged 15 to 34 who have lived in the city for more than six months. Demographics largely explain these figures. Only 30% of young people have always lived in Barcelona, ​​while 43% have lived there for less than five years. 42% of young people are foreign nationals (six points higher than in 2020), and 55% have both parents of foreign origin. Catalan is never the predominant language among foreigners, who prefer Spanish and combinations with other languages. Looking at young people of Spanish nationality, Catalan is the predominant language for 30% of respondents.

The birth of Francesc Serés's (Saidí, Baix Cinca, 1972) first child is the central theme of his new non-fiction book. The first year (Bow). If to The inner world The writer, who once gazed from Berlin across Europe to connect three wars, now takes on a more existential and, at the same time, domestic tone, from his new home in Graz, Austria: Why do we have children? And what kind of world will we leave them? Through the everyday testimonies of those around him, Serés weaves a chronicle that touches on the major themes that permeate our world: identity, family, progress, the far right, and hope.

Anglicisms are dominating conversations about sexuality and romantic relationships, because English has given names to situations that previously had no name, such as breadcrumbing (give bread springs) or the yearning (the longing). And also to sexual identities and practices that had not been made visible, fromspanking (the one born) in the bondage (the ligament) passing through thesquirting (the sprouting). Traditionally, it has been Castilianisms that have colonized the dirty talk Catalan. However, Catalan has thousands of slang terms for all registers, even the most informal and intimate ones. In Cardamos in Catalan (Rosa dels Vents) Linguists Laura Boj, Xènia Hernández, and Roger Miras propose hundreds of genuine words and alternatives to the most common foreign terms for (oral) sex. "We want to move away from the clichés that using genuinely Catalan words when we have sex doesn't sound dirty or sensual. Does the name make the thing? Doesn't it turn you on when they go down on you, when they give it to you good, when they give you a blowjob, when they give you a blowjob, or when they suck your dick?" in the book.

"What the hell do you really want from me?" asks figure skater Shane Hollander to his rival and lover Ilya Rozanov in the popular series More than rivals. — I want you to suck my dick. — Go to hell. You're unbelievable. Suck my dick — he replies angrily, using euphemistic ethnic pronouns.More than rivals It's one of the trendy shows that has forced translator Alba Garcia Ventura to sharpen her skills, commissioned by the production company Dumilieu Media. The Movistar series (subtitled in Catalan) explores the sexual tension between two hockey players and, in doing so, portrays a linguistic tension present in erotic Catalan in film and television: the need to find genuine words for the constant... fuck, Dick and suck that don't sound repetitive, artificial, or comical.

The latest figures on young people's language use revealed two contradictory realities. On the one hand, according to l'Survey of Language Uses of the Population 2023Those aged 15 to 29 and those over 65 who report having Catalan as their family language (38%, alone or with Spanish) are the groups in which Catalan is most prevalent. On the other hand, historical trends show a clear decline in the social use of Catalan among young people, a worrying trend that, according to Esteve Valls, a sociolinguist at the University of Barcelona, ​​could jeopardize the transmission of the language to their children in the future.

Gisèle Pelicot has not yet finished dispensing justice. After the whole world saw the faces of her fifty sexual abusers in a public trialBecause "shame must change sides," she is now touring Europe with two messages as transformative as that one. "Victims must speak out, they must report, they must not isolate themselves: being heard and acknowledged can help you recover," argues this woman who doesn't want to be labeled "a heroine, a symbol, or an icon," but rather sees herself as "a conscience-awakener." "I know where I come from and I know who I am. I'm just an ordinary woman who allowed herself to be supported by psychologists, lawyers, family, associations..." she says.

The Department of Language Policy has presented one of the lowest budgets in the Catalan government compared to other departments, but also one of the most expansive, and, looking at historical trends, it represents a record amount allocated to public policies for the Catalan language. The new department, headed by Francesc Xavier Vila, became independent from the Department of Culture in 2024 (although it still shares some services) and I had never publicly presented the accounts until today.. Yeah Culture aims to have 524 million In its accounts, the Language Policy department anticipates having 85 million euros available should the proposals be approved. Salvador Illa's 2026 budgetThis would represent an increase of 26 million euros, or 42.8%. Looking at per capita spending, the Generalitat would go from allocating 7.24 euros per person for language in 2025 to 10.34 euros. The current 85 million euros contrast sharply with historical trends. During Pere Aragonès's years in government (2021-2024), the Language department received a budget exceeding 50 million euros, but prior to 2022, the allocation for language policy never exceeded 40 million euros in any single year. A decade ago, language budgets did not surpass 30 million euros, so the budget increase compared to a decade ago would be 213%. The department will allocate 65.3 million euros to direct transfers to its own public bodies. 17.3 million euros will be allocated to subsidies, 50 percent more than in the extended budget. For example, 6 million euros will go to the audiovisual sector to increase film exhibition and dubbing and subtitling across all platforms. A 1.5 million euro subsidy line will also be created to improve the status of the Catalan language in technology and AI. The 40 Propulsion grants for content creators will continue to be awarded, and the Crit awards will be presented. The Minister also announced a new general campaign (with a budget of 400,000 euros) aimed at breaking down stereotypes and raising awareness among the population about not changing their language due to racial prejudice.

An exhibition at the Palau Robert on critical thinking, disinformation, and hate speech has drawn a complaint from Plataforma per la Llengua (Platform for the Language) because it "stigmatizes Catalan speakers as alleged aggressors." In a space designed to resemble a gym changing room, the exhibition placed the phrase "Let them go back to their country!" alongside the phrase "Let them learn Catalan!", which could be interpreted as equating demanding language learning with racism or exclusion. According to Plataforma per la Llengua, the exhibition presented learning Catalan "with a negative, belligerent, and even hateful tone." The ICIP (International Catalan Institute for Peace), the organizing body, admitted on Thursday afternoon that "the central message of the piece could be misinterpreted and that the text was unfortunate," and has since removed this section from the exhibition.

The writer António Lobo Antunes, one of the most important authors in the Portuguese language, died this Thursday at the age of 83. In 2007 he received the Camões Prize, the most prestigious award for Portuguese literature, and was for years a perennial Nobel Prize candidate. His work displays great psychological depth with original, poetic, and complex prose, offering a portrait of Portuguese society in the last century. The Portuguese government has stated that "his legacy is a chronicle of humanity." Among his most outstanding titles are Exhortation to the crocodiles, The splendor of Portugal and Don't rush into this dark night.

The writer, playwright, and poet Gonçalo M. Tavares (Luanda, Angola, 1970), celebrated by critics and readers as one of the great voices of Portuguese and European literature, has won the Formentor Prize for Literature. The jury highlighted that in the last twenty-five years he "has built a literary oeuvre of powerful personality, dazzling originality, and vigorous imagination," which includes more than forty titles. A professor of literature at the University of Lisbon, he debuted in 2001 with the verses of Book of Dance Since then, he has built a prolific and unique body of work, exploring all literary genres, translated into more than fifty languages ​​and published in seventy countries. He is the third most translated Portuguese author, after Fernando Pessoa and José María Eza de Queiroz.