Isabel Franc (born 1955) is a Spanish writer who signs some of her novels with the pseudonym Lola Van Guardia.

Career

Isabel Franc's works are characterized by humor and being generally focused on the world of female homosexuality. She has also given lectures and writing courses and she has been invited to talk by American universities. Her style combines satire, irony, and parody in a universe where women are the protagonists. Since 2010 she has been a professor at the where she teaches courses in writing and humorous literature. She has written as a columnist. She is currently (2018) a regular contributor to ''La Independent, Agencia de Noticias con Visión de Género'' (The Independent, News Agency with a Gender Perspective).

Works

Novels

Franc made her literary debut with ''Entre todas las mujeres'' (Tusquets, 1992), a Prize finalist. She is the author of the celebrated Lola Van Guardia Trilogy, published by Egales, which includes the titles ''Con Pedigree'' (1997), ''Plumas de Doble Filo'' (1999), and ''La mansión de las Tríbadas'' (2002), and has been translated into several languages. In November 2004 she published ''No me llames cariño'' (Egales), that received the Shangay Prize for the best novel of the year. In 2006 ''Las razones de Jo'' (Lumen) was described as "an unusual, funny, and irreverent version of ''Little Women''." In 2012 ''Elogio del Happy End'' (Egales) was the winner of the 6th .

Short stories

''Cuentos y fábulas de Lola Van Guardia'' (Egales, 2008) is a collection of short stories.

Collective works

Franc's

collective work A collective work is a work that contains the works of several authors assembled and published under the direction of one natural or legal person who owns the copyright in the work as a whole. Definitions vary considerably from one country to an ...

s include ''Otras Voces'' (Egales, 2002), ''Las chicas con las chicas'' (Egales, 2008), ''Noves dames del crim'' (Llibres del Delicte, 2015), ''Ábreme con cuidado'' (Dos Bigotes, 2015), ''Incidente en el salón'' (a parody of

Natalie Barney Natalie Clifford Barney (October 31, 1876 – February 2, 1972) was an American writer who hosted a literary salon at her home in Paris that brought together French and international writers. She influenced other authors through her salon and al ...

's famous salon in the Parisian

Rive Gauche The Rive Gauche (, ''Left Bank'') is the southern bank of the river Seine in Paris. Here the river flows roughly westward, cutting the city in two parts. When facing downstream, the southern bank is to the left, and the northern bank (or ''Rive D ...

in the 1920s), and ''Donde no puedas amar no te demores'' (Egales 2016).

Graphic novels

In 2010 she published, along with the cartoonist , ''Alicia en un mundo real'' (Norma cómic), a graphic novel about breast cancer, not without its irony, which received the 2011 Jennifer Quiles Award. In 2014, again in collaboration with Susanna Martín and Norma cómic, Franc published ''Sansamba'', another graphic novel with autobiographical touches, a reflection on cultural and emotional boundaries based on a supposedly impossible friendship.

Essays

Franc's essays include "Del pozo a la hiena: humor e ironía en la llamada literatura lésbica" in the collective volume ''Cultura, homosexualidad y homofobia. Vol II Amazonia: retos de visibilidad lesbiana'' (Laertes 2007) and "Envers un Elogi del happy end", in ''Accions i reinvencions. Cultures lésbiques a la Catalunya del tombant de segle XXI'' (UOC, 2012). In 2013 the collective book ''Desconocidas & Fascinantes'' (Egales) compiled minibiographies to bring visibility to silenced women. In 2017, Franc coordinated and edited ''Las Humoristas. Ensayo poco serio sobre mujeres y humor'', published by Icaria. In a humorous tone, the book makes a profound reflection upon the presence and absence of women in the field of humor.

Translation and editing

She translated ''El jardín de Shahrzad'' (Egales, 2008) and edited and prefaced the new version of ''

Ladies Almanack ''Ladies Almanack'', its complete title being ''Ladies Almanack: showing their Signs and their Tides; their Moons and their Changes; the Seasons as it is with them; their Eclipses and Equinoxes; as well as a full Record of diurnal and nocturnal Dis ...

'' by

Djuna Barnes Djuna Barnes (, June 12, 1892 – June 18, 1982) was an American artist, illustrator, journalist, and writer who is perhaps best known for her novel ''Nightwood'' (1936), a cult classic of lesbian fiction and an important work of modernist litera ...

(Egales, 2008).

Theater

Franc participated in the theatrical production ''Yo soy Gloria Fuertes'' by Gloria Bosch, directed by Ariadna Martí de Puig. She is the author of the play ''De Generacions'', a text for three characters that shows how two generations separated by time understand, live, and express feminism.

Awards

* 1992: Prize finalist * 2004: Shangay Award * 2011: Jennifer Quiles Award * 2011:

References

External links

*
Una cómica de la pluma
' – blog by Isabel Franc {{DEFAULTSORT:Franc, Isabel 1955 births 20th-century Spanish novelists 20th-century Spanish women writers 21st-century Spanish educators 21st-century Spanish novelists 21st-century Spanish women writers Novelists from Catalonia Short story writers from Catalonia Lesbian novelists Spanish lesbian writers Spanish LGBT novelists Living people Spanish women essayists Spanish women short story writers Writers from Barcelona Pseudonymous women writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers 21st-century pseudonymous writers 20th-century Spanish women educators 20th-century Spanish educators 21st-century Spanish women educators