Antoni Dalmau (Igualada, 1951 - 2022). He has a degree in Law and is qualified as a Catalan language teacher.

He has been a councillor in the Igualada Council and the Barcelona City Council, a member and also president of the Barcelona Provincial Council, and a member and vice-president of the Parliament of Catalonia. He has been president of the Teatre Lliure Foundation-Public Theatre of Barcelona since 1988.

He is a regular contributor in different areas of the media, a teacher in the Faculty of Communication Sciences (Blanquerna) of the Ramon Llull University, and is director of the magazine Revista d'Igualada. He has also translated a number of French and Belgian writers.

He has worked in different literary genres. His novels are El cor de l'espiral. Diari íntim d'un conseller d'Agricultura (The Heart of the Spiral. Intimate Diary of a Minister for Agriculture, 1994); Capsa de records (Box of Memories, 1995); Terra d'oblit. El vell camí dels càtars (Land of Oblivion. The Old Cathars' Way, 1997 – winner of the First Nèstor Luján Prize for the Historical Novel); Naufragis quotidians (Everyday Wrecks – co-authored with Anna Vila, 1999); L'amor de lluny (Love from Afar, 2001); Primavera d'hivern (The Spring of Winter, 2005 – winner of the 2004 Fiter i Rossell Prize); and El testament de l'últim càtar (The Last Cathar's Testament, 2006). His books of essays include Materials d'obra (Materials for the Job, 1987), which is a collection of political writings, Cartes a un jove polític. Què pots fer pel teu país (Letters to a Young Politician. What You Can Do for Your Country, 2000), and Les festes tradicionals que no hem de perdre (Traditional Festivals We Must Not Lose, 2005). He has also written historical studies, for example Pels camins de la història d'Igualada (On the Paths of Igualada's History, 1985 – illustrated by Carme Solé and winner of the 1985 "Serra d'Or" Critics' Prize), Els càtars (The Cathars, CD-rom and book, 2002), Els càtars (The Cathars, 2005), a manual of popular history, and Petita història d'Enric Prat de la Riba (A Short History of Enric Prat de la Riba, 2007), which is illustrated by Pilarín Bayés. Moreover, he is author of the historical monograph El cas Rull. Viure del terror a la Ciutat de les Bombes (1901-1908) (The Rull Case. Living on Terror in the City of Bombs (1901 – 1908)) and a travel guide Una escapada al país dels càtars (Getting Away to Cathar Country, 2002).

He was a member of the Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (Association of Catalan Language Writers).


Web page: Carme Ros for AELC.
Documentation: Author's personal files.
Translation: Julie Wark.
Photograph: Author's personal files.