This week we have been shaken by the changes in the Saint Lucy's NightThe event, which will become the Night of Catalan Letters (NLC), will be held in March and will include more awards. I, frankly, have mixed feelings about the news.

It's been 75 years since Josep M. Cruzet, founder of the Librería Catalònia and editor of SelectaHe promoted a literary competition to give visibility to Catalan-language writing at a time—the immediate post-war period—when the two main awards, the Navidad and the Ciudad de Barcelona, were in Spanish. In that first edition, in 1951, of the Noche de Santa Lucía (Night of Saint Lucy), still held clandestinely, the Joanot Martorell Prize was awarded to The narrow street, of Josep PlaSince then, the Night of Saint Lucy has been celebrated every year on December 13th, but the literary festival has been evolving. The latest of these changes was announced this Monday at noon at the Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC) by Xavier Antich, president of Òmnium Cultural, the organization behind the event: from now on, the festival will move to March and will expand with the announcement of new awards—such as the Òmnium Prize for comics and literary works—for the best novel of the year. The new Night of Saint Lucy will be called the Night of Catalan Letters, and the next edition will be held on Saturday, March 14th in the Oval Room of the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) and will be broadcast live on TV3. "It will be a great iconic event that should serve as a powerful platform for our literature," said Xavier Antich. "To make this possible, we are announcing a major alliance with authors, publishers, translators, booksellers, and libraries—all the players in the book industry." The Catalan Institute of Publishers (IEC) has also joined. "We are thrilled to be involved because it celebrates one of the best moments for authors who write in Catalan," said Teresa Cabré, president of the Institute. "It is generous of Òmnium to have offered us the opportunity to organize this grand celebration with them, especially considering that the Night of Santa Llúcia is already in full swing. It also brings together many of the stakeholders involved in the promotion of Catalan literature."

Toni Güell (Barcelona, ​​​​1979) reads every week – I have told him – a hundred opinion articles by national and international analysts due to his work as head of Opinion at ARA. Perhaps it was inevitable that concern for the direction of the world would be the guiding thread of his stories, which, with intelligence and wit, he takes towards political fiction and the literature of the unusual. Elephants (Empúries) is his literary debut and has earned him the 2024 Mercè Rodoreda Award. This Monday he will present it at the Ona bookstore (7 pm). His talent has burst the seams of an elephantine discretion.