Joan Mas i Vives (Maria de la Salut, Mallorca, 1951) is a literary critic, essayist and literary historian, specialising in the Mallorca of the nineteenth century. He is Professor of Catalan Philology at the University of the Balearic Islands.

He obtained a degree in Romance Philology from the University of Barcelona in 1975 and, in 1985, presented his doctoral thesis on nineteenth-century theatre in Mallorca. This eventually led to the publication of the book El teatre a Mallorca a l'època romàntica (Theatre in Mallorca in the Romantic Age, 1986), which was awarded the Jaume Massó i Torrents Prize of the Institute of Catalan Studies. Notable among his books are Reflexions sobre poesia catalana (Reflections on Catalan Poetry, 1982), Josep de Togores i Sanglada: biografia d'un il·lustrat liberal (Josep de Togores i Sanglada: Biography of a Liberal Scholar, 1994) and Domini Fosc (Assaigs sobre poesia) (Dark Domain (Essays on Poetry), 2003). Of particular relevance for the literary historiography of the Balearic Islands, and Catalan historiography in general, is his work as director of the Diccionari del Teatre a les Illes Balears (Dictionary of Theatre in the Balearic Islands), which was published in two volumes in 2003 and 2006. This detailed study was awarded the 2006 Miquel dels Sants Oliver Prize of the Obra Cultural Balear and the "Serra d'Or" Theatre Critics' Prize in 2007. As a result of this project, the Joan Ramis i Ramis Chair was established in 2005, and Joan Mas i Vives is its scientific director. He has also published a great number of articles, prologues and introductory studies, and has been the editor of several books.

In 2011 he is finalist of the Sant Jordi Prize for his first novel, Kabul i Berlín a l'últim segon.

Joan Mas i Vives is a member of the Association of Catalan Language Writers.


Web page: Toni Terrades for AELC.
Trranslation: Julie Wark.
Photographs: Autho's personal files and AELC photographic files.