Maria Mercè Roca i Perich (b. Portbou, Spain, July 19, 1958) is a Catalan 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.

Maria Mercè Roca i Perich
in 2012[1]
in 2012[1]
BornMaria Mercè Roca i Perich
(1958-07-19) July 19, 1958 (age 66)
Portbou, Spain
OccupationWriter

Biography

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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. 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.[2]

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)[3]– 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, where ERC got 4 councillors, among which Roca was one of them.

Roca was one of the promoters of the platform Sobirania i Progrés.[3] In 2022 she was appointed dean of the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes, a public body promoting catalan literature.[4]

Work

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Plaque with Maria Mercè Roca's signatura, at the foot of the Monument to the Book in Barcelona

Short stories

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  • 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

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  • 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[1]

Non-fiction

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

Prizes

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b Maria Mercè Roca al Casal, 2012, Televisió Cardedeu, Retrieved 20 April 2016
  2. ^ "La junta". Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Maria Mercè Roca". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  4. ^ "Maria Mercè Roca, nova degana de la Institució de les Lletres Catalanes". Departament de Cultura (in Catalan). Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  5. ^ Gomila, Andreu (21 January 2000). "Maria Mercè Roca obtuvo el Premi Ramon Llull, dotado con 10 millones de pesetas" [Maria Mercè Roca Wins the Ramon Llull Award, Endowed with 10 Million Pesetas]. Última Hora (in Spanish). Barcelona. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
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