Vicent Pitarch (Vila-real, Plana Baixa, 1942) is a sociolinguist and essayist.

A member of the Philological Section of the institute for Catalan Studies since 1985, he is a promoter and founding member of the Carles Salvador Foundation, a member of the Huguet Foundation and also Delegate of the Presidency in the Institute for Catalan Studies branch of Castelló de la Plana. In 1969 he founded and was director of the Ràdio Popular programme Nosaltres els valencians (We the Valencians) and, in 1975, he was co-founder of the El Rotgle pre-school, the first Catalan-language school in Castelló de la Plana.

Vicent Pitarch has written studies in sociolinguistics and on Catalan culture in Valencia today, notable amongst which are Defensa de l'idioma (1972), Curs de llengua catalana (1977), Reflexió crítica sobre la llei d'ús i ensenyament del valencià (1984), Fets i ficcions. Llenguatge i desequilibris socials (1988), L'eix castellonenc de la cultura contemporània (1995), Control lingüístic o caos (1996), winner of the 1997 Valencian Writers’ Essay Prize, Converses amb J. Simon, E. Valor i R. Súria. Homenatge a les Normes de Castelló (2002), Les Normes de Castelló. Textos i contextos (2002), Pompeu Fabra, l'autoritat admirada pel valencianisme (2011) and Les Normes de Castelló als cent anys de les Normes de l’Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2013). He has also written the walkers' books, De camí a Fisterra (2003), winner of the Fourth Ulysses Prize for Fiction in 2002, and La Via de la Plata: de Sevilla a Fisterra passant per Sant Jaume de Compostel·la (2005). He has received several awards for his work including the 1983 Lluís Carulla Foundation Prize for Civic Action, the First “Socarrat Major” Prize of the Socarrats Cultural Association in 1994, the 2000 Civic Distinction Award from the Alambor Cultural Association, the 2003 Enric Soler i Godes Prize of the Soler i Godes Chair Foundation for Innovation in Education, and the “Miquelet of Honour” award of the El Micalet cultural centre in 2006.

Vicent Pitarch is an honorary member of Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (AELC, Association of Catalan Language Writers).



Web page: Toni Terrades for AELC.
Documentation: Vicent Pitarch.
Photographs: Author’s personal files.
Translated by Julie Wark.