Launching of Permafrost. Eva Baltasar and Julia Sanches in conversation
In 2018, the poet Eva Baltasar irrupted in prose literature with her first novel, Permagel, the first part of a trilogy continued with Boulder (2020) and Mamut (2021). Without an excessive marketing apparatus, word of mouth spread the interest in the novel and Permagel sneaked onto all the sales lists of the best sellers of the year in Catalan. This success led that same year to its publication translated into Spanish under the title Permafrost (Penguin Random House). On 6th April, 2021, the publishing house in Sheffield And Other Stories releases the English translation of this bestseller.
In Permafrost, Eva Baltasar tackles current hot topics as alienation, depression, lesbianism, suicide or non-motherhood, with a dizzying and forceful rhythm, succinct but evocative, and a style impregnated with Baltasar's poetic baggage. Eva Baltasar and the novel's translator, Julia Sanches, will discuss these and many more ideas, in a conversation moderated by the University of Leeds professor and translator, Gonzalo Iturregui.
Eva Baltasar (Barcelona, 1978) has published ten volumes of poetry with great success. Her first novel, Permafrost, received the Premi Llibreter 2018 from the Catalan booksellers for the best novel of the year, and was shortlisted for the Prix Médicis de France 2020 as Best Foreign Book. As of today, she has already assigned the translation rights to eight languages. Boulder, the second part, was the Òmnium Prize for the best novel in Catalan of 2020.
Julia Sanches translates from Portuguese, Spanish and Catalan. For her And Other Stories, she has translated Now and in the Time of Our Death by Susana Moreira Marques, Permafrost by Eva Baltasar and Burnt and Slash by Claudia Hernández, for which she won a PEN / Heim award. She has also translated works by Noemi Jaffe, Daniel Galera, and Geovani Martins, among others. She is a founding member of the collective of translators Cedilla & Co. and currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island (USA).
Gonzalo Iturregui is a Catalan reader at the University of Leeds. He is a doctor in translation and intercultural studies (UAB). His research experience focuses on translation and audiovisual accessibility, to which he has given an interdisciplinary approach that has included topics such as reception and gender studies. Apart from his activity at the university, he performs freelance tasks as a translator and audio descriptor, especially in the field of performing arts.
