Reading in the rain...

Our second Readings in the garden-session didn’t take place exactly in a garden… A meddling rain forced us to improvise a sheltered location. We were lucky enough to get the generous help of Espai Jove La Fontana. Many thanks to Erika, as well as to Olokuti and Jiwar, which did all they could to make our session happen!

As you can see at the pic, finally we managed to keep our three authors, the moderator Rosa Mena and a large audience away from the rain. We counted more than 30 people!

The first reader was Jan Farina. He read a fragment of his detective novel Un despacho sin clientes, that takes place in Spain during the troublesome forties, at the worst of Franco's dictatorship. Real detectives with fake names, violence-prone policemen and dangerous partisans as  Quico Sabaté showed up at his fragment. We were dying to know what happened with detective Pérez Moya and his mysterious assignment. But we will have to wait until Jan finishes his novel… Maybe is his Facebook-profile  he would give us some news about his progress.  

Iñaki Marín is a talented reader, so we really enjoyed the fragment of his novel La sombra del buitre. At the light of a cozy fireplace -but also at the light of quantum physics--, we almost felt like being present during to the flirt between the pragmatic pharmacist Pilar Laborda and an idealistic physics teacher. That relationship does not augur well for them… But it does for its futures readers!

The last author to read was Jordi Fenosa. He brought a funny change of register with his characters: an extravagant woman called Von Sprüngli and her pet, a chameleon that adores hot chocolate. With her purple nails and orange hair, that amazing woman can spread her wings and flutter under the ceiling of a pirate’s inn.

However, although the improvised circumstances forced us to change our location in the middle of our session and we lost part of the public, we can confirm something already noticed at our first session: The most interesting part of Readings in the garden is the final discussion! Until the point for our future sessions we will only accept shorter fragments from until 2.200 words in order to provide more time for it. 

At the discussion we found out that the novel of Jan Farina emerged from his crazy idea of showing up one day, without an appointment, at the office of a private detective asking him for material to write about. At the office they put him in touch with a retired detective who transmitted to him many of the stories and atmospheres that he describes with such a convincing realism at his novel. Although that old man was not his only source: “I like to listen to what old folks have to tell me”, he said to us. That may be the reason for his ability to capture the atmosphere of the depressed forties in Spain.

The novel of Iñaki Marín has a different origin. He wanted to reveal certain abuses of the pharma industry, represented by his main character Pilar Laborda. But as it uses to happen, some aspects got out of hand during the writing process and his characters decided to take their own way. So none of us knows, not even him!, knows how the relationship between Pilar and Pablo is going to end, nor what will happen once Matías finds out about it...

We all could realise that the novel of Jordi Fenosa is visually very rich. So, as expected from somebody who is also an experienced illustrator, his narrative uses to evolve departing from an image. Another aspect that pushed him towards writing was the low quality of some of the books he had to illustrate. We all wished to see his illustration of Magdalena Van Sprüngli! Perhaps we are lucky enough to get him to share it with us at this blog, since we would like to provide some information here once in a while about the progress of the novels read “at the garden”.

But the discussion did not stop there. We talked about many other things, like the difficulties of combine creative writing with other kind of jobs or with the family, the problems with self-discipline or the emotions aroused when creating a literary universe. (“Pure joy!”, said Iñaki, for whom the pleasure of imagining a narrative world had become a serious danger when riding his motorbike).

Too many interesting aspects to be resumed here, so whoever wants to experience a similar discussion about the troubles of creative writing should come to our next session of Readings in the garden. We will let you know the date very soon. In the meantime, remember that whoever is interested in participating can send us a fragment of his/her unfinished novel, this time from only 2.200 words!

And our next readers are ...

We are very happy because we received an unexpected amount of fragments to be read at our second session. So many and so good readings that it has been very difficult for our committee to select only three of them!  It seems that our recently born initiative is already starting to have the impact we hoped for.

Next Wednesday, September 26th, at 19:00 pm in the gardens of Olokuti (C / Astúries 36, Barcelona) you will have the opportunity to know about the work of these novelists:

Jan Farina has written for cinema, theatre and television. He represented Spain at a Script Workshop during the Filmhochschulen of Munich-Festival with his short film script Unsubstantial Rape. He is currently working on the novel Despacho sin clientes, from his Pérez-Moya-serie, where he gives birth to a real detective to whose adventures he will introduce us this coming Wednesday. Jan invites you to join him as a friend at his Facebook profile, where you will be able to follow the progress of his writing.

You may want to know more about the plot: What would you do if you had to survive under the Franco-regime? With this question in mind, the detective Pérez Moya (pseudonym used to avoid potential lawsuits from heirs and clients that are still alive) began to write his memoirs about the origin of the wealth of heroes in our Catalan and Spanish hall of fame.

Jan Farina

Iñaki Marin is a teacher, writer and screenwriter in Barcelona. In the field of professional writing he collaborates at many cultural projects as a screenwriter for audiovisual productions. In 2010 he published the short stories Y que cumplas muchos más and  Historia cerrada in the literary anthology Cuento atrás (Editorial Hijos del Hule). In 2011 he participated with three short stories at the anthologies Verbigracia: Principios de la termodinámica, Los 4 fantásticos and Para decir adiós (Editorial Hijos del Hule). He is currently finishing his novel La sombra del buitre, which he is going to introduce this coming  Wednesday to us. 

A bit of the plot to catch  your interest: Pilar Laborda spend her whole life following professional success. When she finally  reaches it, she has to pay a high price. Friendship, love, moral integrity and a dark past haunt the executive, who will be involved in a pharmaceutical plot that will be not easy to escape ...

Iñaki Marín

Jordi Fenosa Tatay has been illustrating children's books for more than twenty years. He also  draws a weekly humour strip for  a digital newspaper. (In his blog you can see a sample of his drawings). In the last couple of years he started to write books, always for children and young. He has written two novels so far, Columna de fum and La trumfa marinera, still unpublished (hopefully not for long...) On Wednesday he will read to us a funny text  from the second part of La trumfa marinera, still untitled.

As you can see by the plot,  you will have a great time listening to Jordi: La trumfa marinera is a fun story of scientific explorations set in an imaginary eighteenth century, with ambitious and ridiculous aristocrats, sweet-toothed pirates and an Amazonian tribe that lives from a super-fruit that provides  them everything they need. The same characters will appear in his  unfinished  second part.

Jordi Fenosa Tatay

We are looking forward to the readings and we are eager to participate in the ensuing discussion. Don't miss it!

Working on the next session

We are currently preparing the second session of Readings in the Garden, which will take place on September the 26th. This time we are lucky enough not only to have the valuable cooperation of the international artist's residence Jiwar, but also the support of the Olokuti-shop and --excellent news!-- of the Escola d'Escriptura de l'Ateneu, one of the more important creative-writing-schools in the world. Don't hesitate! Send us a fragment of the novel you are currently writing, either in Spanish, Catalan or English (3.000 words approximately) in order to participate in our next session. But beforehand, to let you see what it is all about, here the description of the very first session in a nutshell.   

We feel very satisfied by the results of this inaugural session, that took place last 20th of June. The level of the texts was as high as enriching was the discussion afterwards, until the point that it was already dark as the public left the garden. We had phone exchanges and the promise of future meetings. 

The first to read was Rosa Sala Rose. She chose a fragment from Ngomo, a historical novel with different scenarios, starting in Vienna in the 18. century. Rosa's fragment was very well chosen, because it was a chapter closed in itself, with a clear beginning and ending. During the later discussion, the public asked the author, better known as a non-fiction writer, about the historical veracity of her story, how  she found out about the episodes that inspired the plot and and also about her research methods in order to get access to the original sources. That got us to talk, among other things, about her trips to the archives in Paris or about how she came to hold the original skull of her main character in her own hands, literally speaking! We also talked about the difficulties of moving from the accuracy of non-fiction-books towards the total freedom of a novel. 

The second reader was Miranda Train, who read a fragment of her novel Wind in English. During her reading we could already feel wthat she later confirmed: Something very usual in the process of writing (the parallelisms between the life of the author and the story he/she is writing) had in her case a very peculiar effect, since, due to a certain kind of magic that even she is unable to understand, it was her own life that at the end became similar to the biography of her main character. So writing came first! We also discover that Miranda is a very adventurous person, a bit  like the characters of her book, and that her many stages at various artist residences became for her a sort of existential journey. 

The last reader was Helena Cuesta, who choosed a fragment of her novel Emma. If Rosa's text could be defined as highly literary and Miranda's fragment has the virtue of catching the reader through  words (since her writing is as involving as the rain-forest she described!) maybe the main feature of Helena's text was its sharp sense of irony. The public laughed a lot with her description of a meditation session. Her experience as a professional storyteller became very evident to all of us, both for the closed structure of fragment she choosed as for the dramatization of her reading. That's why the public asked her if the fragment was a sort of a tale caught inside the novel and if all of her novel is going to follow this structure. Somebody also asked her if the meditation session that she described so skillfully and with such a great sense of humor really took place or was just an invention.

The results of the first session exceeded all expectations: the authors were able to see the potential reception of their work at a time when they are still involved in the process of writing. And the public had the opportunity to ask all that stuff  we so often would like to know from the author when reading a book.

Would you like to be part of all this? We are expecting new fragments for our next reading-session in the garden on the 26th September. No doubt that it is going to be at least as exciting as the first one! And please don't' forget to follow us on Facebook  and Twitter...

We have already selected our first readers for the opening reading session this Wednesday 20th: the American novelist Miranda Train will read in English a fragment of her novel Wind. The writer and storyteller Helena Cuesta and the essayist Rosa Sala Rose will read fragments in Spanish from their works in progress Emma and Ngomo, respectively. After the discussion that will close the session we invite you to a glass of wine. Would you like to join us? Wednesday 20th at 7pm in the garden of Jiwar (entrance through the Olokuty-shop, Astúries 36).

Rosa Sala Rose is an essayist specialized in German history and culture. She is now writing her first novel, Ngomo, partly set in Viena at the end of 18th century.  

Miranda Train received her MFA in Creative Writing from the New School. Her novel in progress Wind is about a woman who eats the fruit of knowledge and travels around the world discovering the secret of the universe.

Helena Cuesta studied Art History and worked as an exhibition guide until one day stories entered her life. She is a storyteller and has also collected tales, stories, legends... and she writes to help memory to see better. Her novel Emma reflects life in Barcelona, as well as the world of cultural administration, and reflects, in a humorous tone, about the changes we experience during our life, and how to deal with them.

1st Reading in the Garden

To write a creative book is necessarily a lonely endeavor. But does it have to be always like that? Sometimes to let others know about our current writing helps us to keep the motivation, to clear up doubts and to help to understand the complexity of any creative process. Jiwar Creació i Societat proposes you to share the evolution of your personal writing project with the public and other writers in our “Readings in the garden”-sessions: three authors will gather monthly in our garden during summertime to introduce us into their work and to read a fragment of it for fifteen minutes. The session will close with an open discussion between the writers and the public.

The presented piece of work must be unpublished and unfinished (that is, the creation-process should not yet be finished). If you are interested in taking part, send the fragment or fragments you want to read (3.000 words maximum) to lecturesaljardi@yahoo.com. A committee will decide if they are accepted and, if so, will let you know the foreseen date of your reading. We will accept texts written in Catalan, Spanish or English.

The first reading will take place next Wednesday, 20. June, at 7 pm. Place: Espai Jiwar, C. Astúries 38 (entrance to the gardens through "Olokuti"). Metro Fontana. In case of rain, the session will be canceled and a new date will be offered.