A few years ago, Irene Larraza, director of the Etxepare Basque Institute, said that the work of Basque creators can nowadays coexist as equal with that of top-level artists from all over the world.

This is an affirmation that seems to be shared today by anyone who has acquired even a minimum familiarity with Basque art and literature, especially contemporary ones. It is an affirmation that contains, on the other hand, an extraordinary fact, namely that an overall meagre and neglected tradition, expressed also in a language despised for decades, if not centuries, and subjected to all kinds of discrimination, has been able to develop just in the period of the last 40 or 50 years to the point of today being able to offer its consumers – and in abundance – what the best artistic creation always strives to produce: delight, knowledge, emotion, surprise, consolation. Basque literature has also travelled this fruitful path.

The series is coordinated by Dr. Gorka Mercero (University of Liverpool) and the third talk is with the writer Katixa Aguirre.

Katixa Agirre (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1981) made her debut in Basque literature with the short story collection Sua falta zaigu (Elkar, 2007), followed by Habitat (Elkar, 2009). After numerous works of children’s and young adult literature, she published her first novel in 2015, Atertu arte Itxaron (Elkar, 2015), a road novel which won the 111 Akademia Prize, and was translated into four other languages, including Spanish as Los turistas desganados (Pre-textos, 2017). Thanks to the Augustin Zubikarai grant, she published her novel Amek ez dute/Mothers Don’t– a worldwide success translated into nine languages, including English by Open Letter in North America and 3TimesRebel in the UK. This novel is currently being adapted to the screen by Catalan director Mar Coll. She published her last novel, Berriz Zentauro in September 2022. This work can be found in Spanish (De nuevo centauro, Tránsito) and Catalan (De nou centaure, Segona Periferia).