Mercè Ibarz (Saidí, 1954), who has lived in Barcelona since 1971, is a writer, essayist, journalist, and cultural critic. Her chronicle La terra retirada (winner of the 1992 Humbert Torres Prize) was first published in a local Fraga collection, after which it was reissued by Quaderns Crema in 1993. Her novel La palmera de blat, also published by Quaderns Crema, appeared the same year. In 2020, her book Tríptic de la terra (Anagrama) appeared. This work consists of the two earlier titles and a third, previously unpublished title, Labor inacabada. All three books are about contemporary rural life and changes in ways of working and community life. 

Moreover, she has published the short story collection Contes urbans (2022), which brings together the collections A la ciutat en obres (2002) and Febre de carrer (2005), and also the novels No parlis de mi quan me’n vagi (2010), and Vine com estàs (2013), both of which are set in an urban environment and in the framework of the memory of her generation.

She is well known for her essays, in particular those about the writer Mercè Rodoreda, with such titles as Mercè Rodoreda: un retrat (1991), Rodoreda, exili i desig (2008), Rodoreda, un mapa (2022), and Retrat de Mercè Rodoreda (2022), and also as editor and prologue writer of a collection of Rodoreda's journalism, Avui, que ens són familiars la browning i els gàngsters. Periodisme, humor, sàtira (1932-1934). Moreover, she was curator of the exhibition "L'altra Rodoreda. Pintures i collages (2008)".

Among her other essays are Tierra sin pan: Buñuel i els nous camins de les avantguardes (1999), L'amic de la Finca Roja (2017), and No pensis, mira. Davant de l'obra d'art (2024). She has also edited and written prologues for writings by Maria-Mercè Marçal (Sota el signe del drac. Proses crítiques (1985-1997), 2004), and Anna Murià (the short story collection Sota la pluja, 2022).

In 2023 she received the Catalan Book Week Writer's Career Award.

Web page: Xulio Ricardo Trigo for AELC.
Documentation and biography: Francesc Gil and M. Josep Simó.
Photograph: Author's personal files.
Translation: Julie Wark.