Individual residencies / Olot
ESMERALDA BERBEL PERDIGUERO
From Friday, 1 February 2019 to Sunday, 10 February 2019
Bio
Born in Badalona on 17 April 1961. She studied Hispanic Philology at the University of Barcelona. In 2000 she published her first book of short stories, El hombre que pagaba noches enteras, Femenino-Lumen award; Alismas, Montserrat Roig award, the poems Calma corazón, calma and Fumar en la bañera. She has written several non-fiction books on mistreatment, adolescence, etc. She has made the work of editor with the epistolary book No se lo cuentes a nadie and 27 de sep. Un día en la vida de las mujeres etc. In 2017 ahe publishes her first novel, Detrás y delante de los puentes, and her new book, a personal diary, Irse. Her stories have received numerous awards. She is currently writing and teaching Creative Writing at the Writing School of the Ateneu Barcelonès and other public and private centres.
Project
During my stay at Faber I will work on the writing of my novel, which deals with one of the most pressing issues in women’s history: power games. The confusion in front of the discourse of a man whose social class, culture, orality, seduction and discourse between confused and “reasonable” target the most fragile areas of the human being. The development of the plot is posed with the scenes in which the man subdues the woman in a subtle and confusing way. The chapters are intertwined between the narrative and the dialogue in which she is perplexed by the doses of love and desire while psychological abuse occurs. Both converge in the same being.
The pleasure of writing in Faber
It’s the first time I’ve had an experience like this, to be cared for, well cared for, and recognized in the importance of my work, all this luxury in a beautiful setting, Olot, in a quiet hotel where the Faber Residency is located. Pau, Gavina and Frances are so kind that it is hard to accept and believe that they have given you five or seven days of stay in paradise.
I arrived at the Residence on a Monday and I was writing morning and afternoon, for five days, a short stay but I made the most of it because that was all I had to do. You get up and there is a breakfast buffet at your disposal, included in the gift of the stay, you have breakfast like a queen, you walk through the woods, you bathe in the swimming pool —frozen in winter— you walk around or around the village that is ten minutes away on foot, you submerge yourself in your own room and continue until lunchtime. In these spaces of rest I have known and shared with my companions, those that in those moments also were in the individual residence, very rich for me to be able to comment the process, the doubts and even to read us some fragments. In the afternoon I return to write until 20 hours when you can go down to dinner. Dinner is part of the gift: exquisite, luxury.
I would repeat every two months, this gift remains in me forever, and it has reminded me of the importance of finding more time to devote myself fully to the new project I am creating.
Thank you very much.