The question was posed by Josep Vallverdú in a poem, and it comes to me readily to answer with a list of responses full of gratitude to this Lleida gentleman: the good things in life are in his sustained work, in his prolific generosity with child and youth readers, in the intelligent good nature that followed him like a perfume, in the wisdom of a recent word, when he said that we must strive to have only "affections and hopes left in the closet", and that "the greater the affections, the closer hopes will be to becoming reality".

"I try to write every day, never to fail", said Josep Vallverdú in 2022, months before turning 99, when he presented one of his latest youth novels, The Eighth Dwarf (La Galera), in which he imagined an alternative version of the popular Snow White. For more than six decades – the ones separating The Fish Seller (Arimany, 1960) and Treasured Silence (Pagès, 2023)– Vallverdú dedicated himself to building, with admirable constancy, rigor, and heterogeneity, one of the most prolific works – exceeding 200 books – in contemporary Catalan literature, which this Tuesday closes with his death at 103 years old, as the ARA has been able to confirm. Death comes to him months after publishing The Return of Rovelló (La Galera, 2025), in which he revived one of the most beloved characters of his work, that of a little dog who got lost in the middle of the woods.

Sadness in the contemporary art sector. Vicente Matallana, the director of the NEWART Foundation and the NEWART Centre in Reus, died on Saturday at the age of 58, as the institution itself has announced. "Matallana was a reference figure in the field of technological art and digital art preservation," reads the NEWART Foundation's statement.

The Barcelona-born writer Luis Goytisolo, the last member of a lineage of writers who renewed contemporary Spanish narrative, died on Sunday at the age of 91 in his rural retreat in Vimbodí, in Conca de Barberà, as reported on Monday at midnight the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), an institution of which he had been an academic since 1995. Goytisolo is the author of an extensive literary work characterized by his capacity for innovation both formally and narratively. One of his most celebrated literary projects is the monumental tetralogy "}Antagonism –formed by the volumes Count, The green of May to the sea, The wrath of Achilles and Theory of knowledge–, which spans from the Civil War to late Francoism and which represented a literary milestone for the narrative of the 70s and 80s. His constant search for new literary territories earned him the National Prize for Spanish Literature in 2013 and recognitions such as the National Literature Prize in 1993 for "Statues with pigeons.

New Zealand actor Sam Neill (Omagh, 1947) has died at the age of 78, as reported by the family in a statement obtained by Reuters agency. With a career spanning over five decades and 150 roles, Neill was best known for starring in films such as Jurassic Park (1993), in which he played paleontologist Alan Grant. Among his most recognized performances are also the farmer in the film The Piano (1993) and Major Chester Campbell in the first two seasons of the series Peaky Blinders (2013-2014). Praised especially for his interpretive versatility, Neill's career was recognized worldwide. The film The Piano, which he starred in with Holly Hunter and Harvey Keitel, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Neill was also nominated three times for Golden Globes and once for an Emmy. In 2019 he visited Catalonia to receive the Grand Honorary Prize of the Sitges Film Festival.

The American singer and songwriter Victor Willis (Dallas, 1951), leader of the group Village People, died this Tuesday at the age of 74 after a "brief but aggressive illness," as reported by the band on their Facebook page. Willis was the singer and co-author of some of the group's greatest hits such as YMCA, Go West, Macho Man, and In the navy. The musician embodied characters such as the policeman and the Navy officer within the group's visual aesthetic, based on interpreting male archetypes on stage. Willis's role was fundamental to the configuration of the sound and image with which Village People became an international phenomenon during the 70s and a symbol of queer culture.

Alan Greenspan, the influential economist who led monetary policy in the United States during his five terms as chairman of the Federal Reserve (the Fed, the US central bank), died this Monday at the age of 100 from Parkinson's, as reported by NBC News. Greenspan was one of the most influential economists of the second half of the 20th century and one of the most prominent names within the neoliberal economic paradigm that began in the 1970s, which advocated for the independence of central banks, financial deregulation, free trade, tax cuts – especially for large fortunes and companies – and the privatization of public services.

The Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg has died at the age of 87, as reported by the newspaper Corriere della Sera. Born in Turin in 1939, Ginzburg was a meticulous teacher, with an insatiable curiosity, who revolutionized historical studies. He grew up in a home that strongly fueled his vocation. His father, the philologist, journalist, and editor Leone Ginzburg, was a prominent anti-fascist who died tortured by the Nazis in 1944. His mother was the writer Natalia Ginzburg, author of seminal works of Italian literature such as Family Lexicon. The historian would confess years later that his mother's passion for literature, combined with the stories he heard as a child about the persecutions and repression of the war, was decisive for his future.

True to his essence until the end: just over a month ago, the British artist David Hockney, who died this Friday at the age of 88, received the actor Ian McKellen in his studio, as McKellen himself published on his Instagram. Although Hockney had been using a wheelchair for some years, and in the photo he looks quite thin, he maintained his style, with a suit with colored checks and his characteristic horn-rimmed glasses. Hockney dressed as he painted. Furthermore, seeing Hockney and McKellen together implies seeing reunited two of the most important figures in 20th-century British culture, and two unquenchable icons of the gay community, who began working when homosexuality was still a crime in the United Kingdom.

Musician Sonny Rollins, a legendary jazz saxophonist, passed away this Monday at the age of 95 at his residence in Woodstock, New York, as reported by his publicist Terri Hinte in a statement, which was picked up by the Efe agency. Known as the Colossus of the Saxophone, Rollins developed a jazz career that spanned several decades and had its most productive period in the fifties, when he accompanied masters of the genre such as Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, and Miles Davis. During that time, Rollins also recorded his most important albums.

During the 70s and 80s, José María Cruz Novillo, renewed the iconographic imagery of post-Franco Spain. He did not limit himself to creating logos; he built the visual imagery of a society emerging from the lethargy of the dictatorship and aspiring to be modern. Born in Cuenca in 1936, he died just a few weeks shy of his 90th birthday. In 2020, Filmin released a documentary that pays tribute to him and allowed many generations to discover him: The Man Who Designed Spain, by directors Andrea G. Bermejo and Miguel Larraya

It so happens that, with a few weeks' difference, two of the great architects of the Tusquets publishing house have died. First was the poet and professor Antoni Marí (1944-2026), who besides being an in-house author had directed the Catalan collection, L'Ull de Vidre, and the poetry collection, Nuevos Textos Sagrados, and this Friday it was its founder and literary director for decades, Beatriz de Moura, according to the publishing house, which said goodbye to her remembering her as "a brilliant and unprejudiced woman, cosmopolitan and feisty, a precursor of so many things and the soul of the publishing house".

Salustià Álvarez, president of the Regulatory Council of the Qualified Designation of Origin Priorat, passed away this Wednesday at noon. Born in Porrera in 1960, Álvarez had worked as an oenologist on various projects, currently the personal one, Álvarez Duran, but also at the Vall Llach winery. He was “the trusted man of Enric Costa and Lluís Llach from 2001 to 2013, in the years when one worked in Vic as a notary and the other was giving concerts,” explains Albert Costa, co-owner of the winery with Isa Serra.The news of Álvarez's death has left the region in consternation; his figure was well-known as a neighbor and also for the various institutional positions he has held. He had been mayor of Porrera, in addition to president of the Regulatory Council of the DOQ Priorat. In a statement released by the DOQ Priorat itself, it is explained that “Salus Álvarez has been a key figure and an indispensable benchmark for understanding the evolution and projection of the DOQ Priorat in recent decades.”

The Valencian poet, narrator, essayist, columnist, and translator, Josep Piera (Beniopa, 1947), has died at the age of 78. He considered himself primarily a poet, but he left a handful of memorable prose books, among which are El cingle verd (Destino, 1982) – for which he won the Josep Pla prize–, Estiu grec (Destino, 1985), and Ací s'acaba tot (Edicions 62, 1993), which the young publisher Cap de Brot reissued in a corrected and expanded version. In 2023, he received the 55th Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes (Honorary Prize for Catalan Literature), awarded by Òmnium Cultural. At that time, he expressed his astonishment at receiving the award and how he understood literature: "I find this writing in the name of everyone to be extraordinarily presumptuous. One writes about what one knows, what one feels, and about oneself. But this must become shareable, symbolic. Otherwise, what the hell can interest others? This is where literature comes in, and I am an animal of words," he stated.

The Valencian poet, narrator, essayist, columnist, and translator, Josep Piera (Beniopa, Gandía, 1947), has passed away at the age of 78. He considered himself primarily a poet, but he left behind a handful of memorable prose books, including El cingle verd (Destino, 1982) – with which he won the Josep Pla award – Estiu grec (Destino, 1985) and Ací s'acaba tot (Edicions 62, 1993), which the young publishing house Cap de Brot reissued in a corrected and expanded version. In 2023, he received the 55th Honorary Award for Catalan Literature, presented by Òmnium Cultural. At that time, he expressed his astonishment at receiving the award and how he understood literature: "This business of writing on behalf of everyone seems extraordinarily presumptuous to me. One writes about what one knows, what one feels, and about oneself. But that must become shareable, symbolic. Otherwise, why on earth would it interest others? This is where literature comes in, and I am an animal of words," he assured.

Without the persistence of the editor Maria Carme Dalmau, we would surely be missing many reference works on the history and heritage of Catalonia today. She worked a great deal, even during the greyness and repression of Francoism, to publicize and make accessible to the public books that explained the country's past, geography, and traditions. And she did so by overcoming very significant legal and economic obstacles. She circumvented censorship by devising a thousand and one stratagems. Born in Barcelona in 1930, the editor died this Thursday at the age of 96.

Dolors Lamarca, a key figure in the modernization of the Catalan library system with the advent of democracy, died this Wednesday in Barcelona at the age of 82 from pneumonia. Born in Granollers in 1943, she had lived in Castellterçol in recent years. Widowed for decades after the death of Antoni Comas (1931-1981), who in the late post-war period was the first professor of Catalan language and literature at the University of Barcelona, ​​they had three daughters: Eulàlia, Núria, and Mercè. In fact, Comas's premature death at the age of 50 came when Lamarca had assumed the directorship of the new Library Service (1980-1983) within the Department of Culture of the Generalitat of Catalonia under the first Pujol government, with Max Cahner as minister, where she laid the foundations for the current library system (1981). However, she did not achieve the integration of the Barcelona Provincial Council's network into a global Catalan network.

We've listened to a lot of songs, but some travel with us our whole lives, stuck in our memory for almost unconscious reasons, more related to the accidents of our lives than to past or present musical tastes.

"Literary genres don't exist. For me, either there is literature or there isn't. We know what painting, architecture, sculpture, and music are—things change after John Cage—but it's not the same with literature. What is literature, and where do we find it? I can recognize it immediately: literature. I find it very evocative: literature. It excites me." Antoni Marí I used these words in 2012 to introduce Book of Absences (Tusquets), a magnificent example of the cultivated, demanding, and dazzling literary endeavor of the author born in Ibiza in 1944, who died in Barcelona at the age of 81. Shortly afterward, he added: "Literature is about fixing and dispelling the darkness."

American actor Nicholas Brendon, who played one of the main characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Nicholas Brendon, who starred in the series for seven seasons (from 1997 to 2003), died at the age of 54 from "natural causes," his family announced Saturday in a statement. "It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our brother and son, Nicholas Brendon. He died of natural causes in his sleep. Many people knew him for his work as an actor and the characters he brought to life. In recent years, he had found his passion in painting and art. (...) It is no secret that Nicholas had struggled in the past, but he was on medication and undergoing treatment for his diagnosis and, at the time of his passing, remained optimistic about the future. Our family asks for privacy during this time of loss and mourning to celebrate the life of a man who lived with intensity, imagination, and heart."