We writers are invited, around Sant Jordi, to talk about the paper-paste article that we have had the joy and audacity to create. “I haven't finished the book”, Basté told me, apologizing. I know authors who get offended or upset if the journalist hasn't read them. But does the journalist need to have read a book, seen a movie, listened to a record, or gone to a restaurant to interview the author? It seems to me that it's not necessary. That, sometimes, it is, perhaps, desirable. Cultural journalists often make this joke: “We are eternal readers of half a book”. Tomorrow they will have another one, and the day after tomorrow another one. Books should be enjoyed calmly (without eternity) and abandoned if necessary, because sometimes it's necessary, like series. The journalist's questions don't necessarily have to be about the plot. It seems to me that an interview with Melville (I love Melville) shouldn't be about cetaceans, even though, of course, on a day like today we would ask him about that extraordinary video we saw on ARA, which shows that whales, my goodness, help each other to give birth. Interviews are advertisements, and it doesn't matter if the author talks about their childhood or what they think of Donald Trump.

Now that Sant Jordi is approaching and booksellers, readers, writers, publishers, and cultural journalists are throwing themselves into it with energy and a touch of anxiety, I would like to share, from this corner, some reflections on the act of writing that May Sarton left us in her Diary of a Solitude(Amsterdam Llibres, translated by Núria Parés).

The tradition began in April 2023, as a musical and poetic preamble to Sant Jordi. Is The Night of the RosesA special concert by the group Mishima and several poets will take place at La Paloma in Barcelona. The 2026 concert will be on April 22nd, and in addition to the group, four prominent voices of Catalan literature from various generations will perform: Eva Baltasar, Pol Guasch, Carlota Gurt, and Biel Mesquida.