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.

How would you feel if you were to agree on an amnesty law, the law were to be approved, a year later it was still not fully applied, the Constitutional Court was about to say that it was constitutional and, even so, it was not applied to you because the Supreme Court went so far as to fabricate that you had been charged with embezzlement – that there was no amnesty –, everyone would wait to see what the European Court of Human Rights would say about all this and years would go by? without the amnesty being applied to him? (And excuse the length of the question.)

Throughout almost six decades of awards, the Honorary Prize for Catalan Literature has distinguished narrators, poets, linguists, singer-songwriters and historians, but until now it had not recognized anyone who had dedicated his life to philosophy as Pere Lluís FontLluís's intellectual contribution has been deployed, broadly speaking, on four levels: university teaching, translation, publishing, and writing. "To think is to rethink." "Catalonia and philosophy have been my two passions." "We are monolingual, but it suits us to be polyglots." These have been three of the award winner's mottos throughout his long and fruitful career.

The way literature is going here and almost everywhere these days, no better candidate could be chosen for the Honorary Prize for Catalan Literature than Pere Lluís Font, man liberal, prudent and wise, as it is said of the Count of Almaviva at Marriage of Figaro, by Mozart. It's not that in other competitions the prize was awarded to some Cherubino, who is a mischievous young man who has yet to do anything notable. It's not that: the prize has gone to a man who has worked his entire life to ennoble the philosophical landscape in Catalonia: Catalan philosophy It cannot be said that we have had, nor would it be understood, just as it is not understood that there could be Catalan mathematics. Not everything can carry that adjective, and that is what the prestige of the homeland ultimately consists of.

It is excellent news to be awarded the Honorary Prize for Catalan Literature in Pere Lluís Font, a thinker who personifies the conviction that rigor is a form of courtesy towards fellow citizens: this can be seen in the interview which Ignasi Aragay writes in this diary, a piece that he enjoys reading.

The historian of philosophy, theologian and translator Pere Lluís Font (Pujalt, 1934) has just been recognized with the 57th Honorary Prize for Catalan Literature, endowed with 20,000 euros and sponsored annually by Òmnium Cultural. In addition to having been a university professor for four decades, Luis was one of the driving forces behind the prestigious collection. Philosophical texts –first in Laia, and then in Edicions 62–, has translated Kant, Pascal, Montaigne and Spinoza into Catalan and has written books such as From Sibiuda to Pascal, passing through Montaigne and Descartes (Pages, 2014) and Philosophy of Religion: Six Essays and a Note (Fragmenta, 2017). "He has been one of the most important and unique philosophers on our scene, an active intellectual for more than fifty years, and who has also left numerous disciples," stated Xavier Antich, president of Òmnium, during the ceremony where the award was announced. "Pere Lluís Font also stands out for his civic commitment, his exemplary ethics in the defense of tolerance and his participation in numerous collective initiatives linked to thought," added Antich, who emphasized the importance of recognizing a philosopher with the Honorary Prize for the first time: "A culture cannot be complete if it does not take thought into account."

Although Josep Piera (Beniopa, 1947) considers himself above all a poet, he has left a handful of memorable prose books, among them The green cliff (Destino, 1982) –with which he won the award Josep Pla–, Greek Summer (Destiny, 1985) and This is where it all ends (Ediciones 62, 1993), which the young publishing house Cabo de Brot has just republished in a corrected and expanded version. "The epilogue that Josep has now written has made us cry with emotion," admits Josep Maria Codina, who together with Germán Bartolomé and Judit Pujol has just launched a project that has already presented its first three titles: Birds of clay, of Santiago Rusiñol; The mark of the hook, by Laura G. Ortensi, and This is where it all ends.