Vicenç VILLATORO
[
02/24/2010
]
Writer and journalist
As a journalist he has worked for the newspapers Diari de Terrassa, El Correo Catalán and Avui and the Catalan television station TV3.
He was editor at Avui between 1993 and 1996, and has also worked as the head of the culture desk at TV3, the editor and presenter of the programmes Trossos and Crònica 3, and the presenter of the programme Millenium. From 2002 to 2004 he was Director General of the Catalan Radio and Television Corporation. In 2005 he also presented the programme De llibres on Canal 33. He have also been a contributor for the newspapers Avui, El Periódico, El País and El Temps, and for Catalunya Ràdio, Com Ràdio and BTV, and have lectured in Opinion Journalism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona’s Information Science Faculty.
As an author he has published a dozen novels, among them Evangeli gris, Memòria del traïdor, La claror de juliol, Hotel Europa, La ciutat del fum, La dona a la finestra and La mirada del vampir. He has won Catalan literature’s most prestigious awards, including the Sant Jordi, Sant Joan, Ciutat de Barcelona, Ciutat de Palma, Prudenci Bertrana, and Documenta awards. In 2004 he won the Carlemany Award for the novel La derrota de l’àngel and two years later he collected the Barco de Vapor Award for Children’s Literature for the book La torre. He has published several books of essays including L’ofici de mirar and De part del pare, as well as books of poetry, non-fiction and political essays. He has also written song lyrics (Fugida, for Ramón Muntaner) and has worked on several film scripts. His latest novel, Tenim un nom (the winner of the 2010 Ramon Llull Award), tells the story of the journey one man and his son make to Paris to watch the Champions League final between Barcelona and Arsenal, and analyses the influence that being a Barça fan has on family and group relationships.
