Tessa Julià Dinarès (Matadepera, Vallès Occidental, 1952) is now retired and lives in Terrassa.

She has degrees in Education and Dramatic Arts from the University of Barcelona and has been trained as a writer in Aula de Lletres alongside Mercè Company. She has devoted her professional life to teaching in different areas, from pre-school through to university, and she has been a member of an independent theatre company in her city.

Julià has published several books in the domain of education, notable among them being Encetar l’escriure (1994), Avaluació a parvulari (1998), Propostes pràctiques per analitzar materials curriculars (1998), and Educación Primaria. Área de Lengua castellana (1999). She has published articles in the reviews Infància, Perspectiva escolar, Guix, Aula and Àmbits de Psicopedagogia, of which she is a member of the editorial board. Among her articles are “Llegir i escriure”, “L’adaptació de materials curriculars”, “Llegir i escriure; ajudar a pensar?”, “Adaptación de materiales curriculares para alumnado con necesidades educativas especiales”, “L’aixopluc de la Marta Mata” and “El gimnàs de la Victòria”.

In 2011, she published her first novel for children, Em vaig casar amb els meus pares (Animallibres), and the same year she received a second prize in the Government of Andorra’s Fiter i Rossell Award. In 2013, she published her second novel for children, Un secret a les butxaques, and the next year she wrote El cosidor d’errades, her first novel for adults.  In 2016 she published the teenager's book No sense tu, and in 2017, in La Galera, the picture book Refugiada, with illustrations by Anna Gordillo. In 2018, she published La pell girada (Editorial Gregal), and wrote the story “La Tremenda” as part of the book El costat fosc de l’obrador. 13 relats negres (Obrador, 2020). In 2021, she published two books: La Júlia em fa de mama (Animallibres) and Les brufes (Mosaics). In 2022, she published a collection of poems entitled Remeis de sirena i altres coses de la mar (L’Art de la Memòria), written in collaboration with Anna Rispau, and the novel Les cares del medalló (Aledis). In 2024, she published Sota el xal (Aledis) and a new edition of El cosidor d’errades (Omnia Books). Her latest novel, Damunt la neu (Animallibres), appeared in 2025.

Tessa Julià is a member of Associació d’Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (Association of Catalan Language Writers, AELC).

Contact.

Documentation and texts: Author’s personal files
Photographs: Author’s personal file.
Translated by Julie Wark.