Josep Forment (Bossòst, Val d’Aran, 1962 – Barcelona, 2014) was a publisher translator and writer.

On his arrival in Barcelona in 1978 he came into contact with the publishing world where he worked first as a sales representative and subsequently as a bookshop owner and publisher. He was one of the founders of the bookshop LletraZoom and, after working for a time with Ediciones B, he joined the publishing house El Andén as an editor.

In 2011 he and Gregori Dolz founded the Alrevés which published his translations of French writers, including Chrétien de Troyes and, in particular, Arthur Rimbau. In the latter case, he presented a different way of reading Rimbaud’s work, first with La belleza del diablo (The Beauty of the Devil, 2009) and then with Poesía al raso (Al Fresco Poetry, 2011).

As a cultural activist he participated in several initiatives related with books and reading as well as in poetry recitals, literary seminars and radio programmes, including Entre hores on Ràdio 4.

In 2014, shortly after his death, special tribute was paid to him at the Thirty-Second Catalan Book Week.



Web page: Francesc Viñas for AELC.
Documentation: Editorial Alrevés.
Photographs: Family files.
Translated by Julie Wark.