One is a CROWD – Josep Pedrals

Literature as a European mother tongue: In our series “One is a CROWD”, we introduce you to authors from all over Europe who will be involved in the CROWD omnibus reading tour, taking place from May to July 2016, featuring 100 authors who will be travelling through 15 European countries. We asked them questions about text production, reception and mediation. In case you were wondering what a literary activist from Barcelona looks like, meet Josep Pedrals!  

Have you ever participated in collaborative author/reader projects? And if so, what do you find interesting about it?

I have participated in a lot of collaborative writing and reading processes and performances and I love when there is something you don’t expect.

When you don’t have the helm completely in your hands, you have to be adaptable and understand (or not) the new paths you are walking on.

The exciting mix of the pleasure and fear of the tightrope!

What is your favorite literary spot in Barcelona? (literary venue, bar, meeting area, city, etc.)

I love the Horinal (Obrador de Recitacions I Noves Actituds Literàries / Workshop of recitations and new literary attitudes), a project that puts on a new poetry reading or performance every week in a bar in Barcelona. I was the organiser for 13 years and I feel like I am at home there!

Which recent literary event has fascinated you the most and why? 

I have been working with experts in “glosa” (the traditional Catalan poetry improvisation) and the way the verse breaks out from the mind and the voice of the improviser, just with the tune, from a simple starting point, and goes as far as the imagination wants… is wonderful!

There is no link to that, but here you can see a video of one of the most exciting improvisations I have ever seen (there is a fixed melody and the lyrics are improvised).

How do you feel about readers’ comments and feedback to your texts? Does it affect / alter your subsequent writing?

Sometimes I only write about the fact of being read (evaluated, criticized, loved…)!

The confidence of the listener, the reader, the audience, for me, forms the foundation of one of the most important relationships of my life.

Anything else that is of interest / importance to you:

I love the transdisciplinary work. Poetry is part of music, part of dramatisation, part of philosophical thinking, part of pictorial imagery…

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