David Castillo i Buïls
David Castillo i Buïls (born June 19, 1961 in Barcelona ) is a Catalan writer, journalist and literary critic.
Live and act
Castillo i Buïls was born in the Poblenou district , then the industrial stronghold of Barcelona. Because of his asthma, he and his family moved to the district of Vallcarca at the age of two, at that time still a somewhat isolated, almost rural barracks district with hardly any cars. This time and region were the inspiration for his novel, El mar de tranquil·litat (“A Sea of Tranquility”), when he was a member of a youth gang who, in his eyes, were fighting street fights that were harmless with the gang from the street next door. In order to protect him from this “danger” anyway, his parents looked for him as an errand boy at a bank when he was fourteen. In addition, he is doing his Abitur and was therefore promoted as an administrative assistant. He remembers his eleven years at Banco Ibérico as a “century full of boredom”. A boredom that forty years later turned out to be an important source of inspiration for his best-selling novels.
As a teenager he was active in the counterculture movement. After the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, there was a spirit of optimism in Spain's big cities, after decades of censorship and national Catholic prudish. Many of his novels are set against the backdrop of these rebellious times.
Since 1989 he has been the editor of the literature and culture supplement to the daily newspaper Avui , and since 2011 it has merged with El Punt to form El Punt Avui . In the 1990s he was the director of the literary magazine Lletra de canvi . He organized the first Setmana de la Poesia de Barcelona (“Barcelona Poetry Week”) in 1997 and has been director of this annual event ever since. With the aspiring poet Marc Sardà , he edited the successful collection of poems Conversaciones con Pepín Bello (in Spanish).
Some of his works have been translated into Spanish and Italian. After the Frankfurt Book Fair 2007, when Catalonia was the guest of honor, he completed a series of readings on modern Catalan literature in several cities in Germany.
Awards
- 1997: Premi Carles Riba, with Game over
- 1999: Premi Joan Crexells, with El cel de l'infern
- 2001: Premi Sant Jordi , with No miris enrere
- 2005: Premi Atlàntida as Journalist of the Year, in Catalan
- 2006: Premi Cadaqués, with Esquena nua
- 2006: Premi Internacional Tratti, for the Italian translation Il presente abbandonato
- 2010: Premi Atlàntida, for the best literary and cultural supplement in El Punt Avui
Works
- biography
- Biografia de Bob Dylan. Ed. 62, Barcelona 1992.
- Poems
- La muntanya russa. Ed. Pagès, Lleida 1993.
- Tenebra. Ed. Proa, Barcelona 1994.
- Game over. Ed. Proa, Barcelona 1998.
- El pont de Mühlberg. Ed. Proa, Barcelona 2000.
- Seguint l'huracà. Ed. Arola, Tarragona 2000.
- Menta i altres poemes. Ed. L'Esguard, Santa Coloma de Gramenet 2005.
- Downtown. Barcelona 2005.
- Esquena nua. Ed. Proa, Barcelona 2006.
- Doble zero. Ed. Proa, Barcelona 2011.
- Novels
- El cel de l'infern. Ed. Proa, Barcelona 1999.
- No miris enrere. Ed. Proa, Barcelona 2002.
- El llibre dels mal catalans. Ed. Columna, Barcelona 2010.
- El Mar de la Tranquility. Ed. Proa, Barcelona 2010.
- Barcelona no existeix. Ed. Empúries, Barcelona 2014.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c ICG, "David Castillo i Buïls" , Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana , 2014
- ↑ a b Cristian Segura, “El secret de ... David Castillo” (David Castillo's secret), Ara , October 6, 2012.
- ↑ Ferran Aisa, “El poeta David Castillo” , Lletra, la literatura catalana a Internet , Universitat Oberta de Catalunya , 2006.
- ↑ “Castillo Buïls, David” , short bio and bibliography on the website of the Ministry of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Castillo i Buïls, David |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | David Castillo |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Catalan writer, literary critic and journalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 19, 1961 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Barcelona |