Carme Riera


Carme Riera Guilera is a novelist and essayist. She has also written short stories, scripts for radio and television and literary criticism. She holds a doctorate in Hispanic Philology and is a professor of Spanish literature at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Riera was born in Palma. She attended the Sacred Heart primary school and the Joan Alcover Institute in Palma, where she met Majorcan writers and fell in love with a teacher, Francisco Llinás.
In 1965 she moved to Barcelona to study Hispanic Philology in the Department of Philosophy and Letters of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She graduated in 1970 and the following year married Francisco Llinás and was hired by Manuel Blecua to give classes in the Department.
That year her son Ferran was born, and she began her literary career. She writes in Catalan and Spanish. Her self-translations are often published at the same time. She lives in Barcelona.
Her best-known work is the historical novel "Dins el darrer blau", winner of several prizes and the first novel in Catalan to win the Premio Nacional de Narrativa, awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. An English translation by Kathleen McNerney, "Blue Horizons of no Return: Sephardic Journeys", is awaiting publication.
Riera was elected to Seat n of the Real Academia Española on 19 April 2012, she took up her seat on 7 November 2013.
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Influences

The background reader of Carme Riera, consequence of an attitude towards literature, forms a frame of references. Sappho, Petrarch, Goethe and Virginia Woolf parade through its pages, but also classical Spanish writers, as Miguel de Cervantes, Clarin, Carmen Laforet, Valle-Inclán, Gil de Biedma... However, the author has placed the roots of her narrative in Majorcan tales and the work of two writers in the construction of contemporary Catalan narrative: Caterina Albert and Rodoreda.

Works

Te deix, amor, la mar com a penyora, 1975 Je pos per testimoni les gavines, 1977Quasi bé un conte, la vida de Ramon Llull, 1980Els cementiris de Barcelona. Barcelona: Edhasa, 1981 Una primavera per a Domenico Guarini. Barcelona: Montesinos Editor, S.A., 1981 Epitelis tendríssims. Barcelona: Edicions 62 S.A., 1981
  • “El reportaje”. Short story. In: Doce relatos de mujeres. Navajo, Ymelda, Madrid: Alianza, 1982, pp. 181–191. Cuentos.Qüestió d'amor propi. Barcelona: Laia, 1987La molt exemplar història del Gos Màgic i la seva cua. Barcelona: Empúries S.A., Editorial, 1988La escuela de Barcelona. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1988. Essay. Winner of the XVI Premio Anagrama 1988 Joc de miralls, 1989 La poesía de Carlos Barral. Barcelona: Edicions 62 S.A., 1990 Hay veneno y Jazmín en tu tinta, aproximación a la, 1991Contra l'amor en conpanyia i altres relats. Barcelona: Destino, 1991Dins el darrer blau, 1994
  • “Princesa meva, lletra d'àngel.” Short Story. In: Érase una vez la paz. Barcelona: Planeta, 1996, pp. 187–193. Cuentos.Quadern d'una espera, 1998
  • “Mon semblable, mon frère”. Short Story. In: Barcelona, un día. Regàs, Rosa . Madrid: Alfaguara, 1998, pp. 357–376. Cuentos.Cap al cel obert. Barcelona: Destino, 2000. Novel.
  • “Metamorfosis”. Short Story. In: Orosia. Jaca: Pirineum Multimedia, 2002, pp. 147–155. Cuentos.La meitat de l'ánima, 2003. Novel. Winner of the 2003 Premi Sant Jordi

Awards