Maria Aurèlia Capmany

Maria Aurelia Capmany i Farnés (3 August 1918, in Barcelona – 2 October 1991) was a Catalan novelist, playwright and essayist. She was also a prominent feminist cultural and anti-Franco activist.

Along with the writers Manuel de Pedrolo, Jordi Sarsanedas, Joan Perucho, and Josep Maria Espinàs, Capmany co-authored, Cita de narradors ("Rendezvous of Narrators") (1958), which was awarded the Josep Yxart Essay Prize. Granddaughter of Sebastià Farnés (1854-1934), intellectual author of Paremiologia catalana comparada, and daughter of Aureli Capmany i Farrés, folklorist and contributor of children's magazines, she spent her youth in the family's apartment near la Rambla in Barcelona. She studied at the Institut-Escola de la Generalitat de Catalunya and she graduated on Philosophy at the University of Barcelona after the war.

She practiced teaching during the 40s and 50s at the Institut Albéniz of Badalona and at the Escola Isabel de Villena in Barcelona. She also worked engraving glass, a job that she had learnt at University.

With her first novel Necessitem morir (We need to die) (published in 1952), she got to the final of the Joanot Martorell Price of 1947, price that she won the following year with El cel no és trasparent (The sky is not transparent). Her prestige as a narrator would arrive with novels like Betúlia, El gust de la pols (The flavour of dust) and especially for Un lloc entre els morts (A place for the death), Sant Jordi Price of 1968. In 1981 she received the Ramon Fuster Price, given by the Col·legi Oficial de Doctors i Llicenciats en Filosofia i Lletres i en Ciències de Catalunya and in 1983 she won the Premi Crítica Serra d'Or de Literatura Infantil i Juvenil with El malefici de la reina d'Hongria (The curse of the Hungarian Queen).

She was one of the most versatile Catalan writers, as apart from writing fiction, she was also devoted to translation, and she worked on the theatrical genre as well as on other literary genres.

In the field of dramaturgy, she founded in 1959 the Escola d'Art Dramàtic Adrià Gual (School of Dramatic Arts Adrià Gual) together with Ricard Salvat. She exercised as a teacher, actress and headmaster. Besides, she premiered own plays, such as Preguntes i respostes sobre la vida i la mort de Francesc Layret advocat dels obrers de Catalunya (Answers and questions about life and dead of Francesc Layret, lawyer of Catalan workers).

As an essay writer, she excelled for her works on the situation of women, especially with La dona a Catalunya: consciència i situació (The woman in Catalonia: awareness and situation) in 1966. The same year, she took part in the Caputxinada, an assembly against the Spanish dictator Franco. She also devoted many articles to several aspects of Catalan culture and society. The book of memories Pedra de toc (1 and 2), Mala memòria, and Això era i no era also excelled.

She took part and intervened in the Míting de la Llibertat (Meeting of freedom) (June 22, 1976) and in the constitutional process of Socialist Party of Catalonia-Congress (November 1976).

She was councillor and responsible for Culture and Editions at Barcelona's Town Hall during the first legislatures of the Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC) and member of the Diputation of Barcelona, since 1983 until she died on 2 October 1991. She was also member of the Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana, and president of the Catalan PEN Club, the Catalan version of the PEN International.