Maria Mercè Roca i Perich (b.

Portbou Portbou () is a town in the Alt Empordà Comarques of Catalonia, county, in the Province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. It has a population of people (). Portbou is located near the France, French France–Spain border, border in the Costa Brava r ...

, Spain, July 19, 1958) is a

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

writer and politician from Spain. She was deputy to the Parliament of Catalonia for Republican Left of Catalonia, and currently serves as a councillor at the City Council of Girona for the same party.

Biography

At age 16, Roca moved to Girona, where she ended up establishing her residence. Although she did not finish her studies on Catalan Philology, she worked for many years as a Catalan teacher. In the mid-1980s, she rose in the Catalan cultural panorama when she was awarded the Víctor Català prize. She continued her literary activity with a number of tales, novels and also a script for the TV series ''Secrets de família'', broadcast by

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso *Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala *Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPTV ...

. Her career has always had a lot of success, both with literary prizes and translations into several languages, including Spanish, Basque, French, German and Dutch. Roca is vice-president of the

Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana The Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (, "Association of Writers in the Catalan Language", or "Association of Catalan-Language Writers"), also known by the acronym AELC, is a professional organisation of authors, poets, scriptwriters, tra ...

. She is always been active in politics –she was deputy at the Parliament of Catalonia, where she was President of the Culture Commission (2007-2010)– for Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) party between 2003 and 2010. She was a candidate to the City council of Girona for (ERC) at the

2015 Spanish municipal elections The 2015 Spanish local elections were held on Sunday, 24 May 2015, to elect all 67,515 councillors in the 8,122 municipalities of Spain and all 1,040 seats in 38 provincial deputations. The elections were held simultaneously with regional elec ...

, where ERC got 4 councillors, among which Roca was one of them. Roca was one of the promoters of the platform Sobirania i Progrés. In 2022 she was appointed dean of the

Institució de les Lletres Catalanes Institució de les Lletres Catalanes (Institute of Catalan Letters) is a Spanish organization based in Barcelona. An entity of the Government of Catalonia, it was founded in 1937 by intellectuals who were loyal to the Republic during the Spanish C ...

, a public body promoting catalan literature.

Work

Short stories

*1986 ''Ben Estret'' *1986 ''Sort que hi ha l'horitzó'' *1987 ''El col·leccionista de somnis'' *1988 ''La veu del foc'' *1988 ''Capitells'' *1994 ''L'escrivent i altres contes'' *2001 ''Contes personals: Tria a cura de Carles Cortès'' *2006 ''Kenitra''

Novels

*1987 ''Els arbres vençuts'' *1987 ''El present que m'acull'' *1988 ''Perfum de nard'' *1988 '' Com un miratge'' *1990 ''La casa gran'' *1990 ''Temporada baixa'' *1992 ''Greuges infinits'' *1993 '' Cames de seda'' *1998 ''L'àngel del vespre'' *1999 ''Temps de perdre'' *2000 '' Delictes d'amor'' *2002 ''Una mare com tu'' *2003 ''L'últim tren'' *2005 ''Els dies difícils'' *2011 ''Bones Intencions''

Non-fiction

*2001 ''El món era a fora'' (interviews) *2005 ''Coses que fan que la vida valgui la pena''

Prizes

*1985 Víctor Català prize for ''Sort que hi ha l'horitzó'' *1986 Josep Pla Award for ''El present que m'acull'' *1992 Sant Jordi prize for ''Cames de seda'' *2000

Ramon Llull Novel Award The Ramon Llull Novel Award ( es, Premio Ramon Llull de novela, links=no; ca, Premi de les Lletres Catalanes Ramon Llull, links=no) is an honor given annually to a novel originally written in Catalan. Conceived in 1981 by editor , it is awarded ...

for ''Delictes d'amor'' *2012 Barcanova prize for ''Mil revolts''

Notes

External links

*
Maria Mercè Roca
at ''Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana''
Maria Mercè Roca at ''Qui és Qui de les Llengües Catalanes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roca, Maria Merce Republican Left of Catalonia politicians Women writers from Catalonia Novelists from Catalonia 1958 births Living people Spanish women writers Catalan-language writers