Jordi Mata i Viadiu was born in Barcelona in 1966. He has a degree in Contemporary History from the University of Barcelona and divides his creative work between literature and writing articles with the aim of popularising different themes, in particular cultural matters that are either little-known or unknown with the aim of expanding or restoring history to an often shaky collective memory.

He published his first novel L'espòs infernal (The Hellish Husband, 1990) in València and subsequently crowned several years of intense literary production in 1996 when he was awarded the Sant Jordi (Saint George) Prize for his El misteri de Berlin (The Berlin Mystery), which was followed by other prize-winning works, for example La compassió del dimoni (The Devil's Compassion), winner of the 1998 Joanot Martorell Prize, and La segona mort de Shakespeare (The Second Death of Shakespeare), winner of the 1999 Nèstor Luján Prize. His most recent fictional work to be published is En algun punt de les muntanyes d'Ararat (Somewhere in the Ararat Mountains, 2004). He also writes poetry, essays and theatre.

He is a regular contributor with his articles to the history review Sapiens, as well as to Serra d'Or and the weekly El Triangle.

He is a member of AELC (Association of Catalan Language Writers).


Web page: Carme Ros for AELC.
Photograph: © Pere Virgili.
Translation: Julie Wark.