Maria Isern
Writer, researcher and poet
Author of Sostre de carn (Francesc Garriga Prize 2017, La Breu, AdiA, Cafè Central, Edicions del Buc) and Rusc (Nollegiu Prize, La Breu, 2023), her first book begins with an expansion that the second develops and transforms, more or less, into a colony of bees. Some of her poems have been translated into French, English, German, Greek and Portuguese. She is also co-author of the video essay Del peix, l'espina, premiered at Bòlit (Girona) in 2023, which explores hunger and desire through the perspective of the anorexic body. She holds a PhD in Gender Studies and Comparative Literature from the University of Barcelona and Université Paris 8–Vincennes–Saint-Denis. Her doctoral research, carried out at ADHUC-Centre de Recerca Teoria, Gènere i Sexualitat and LEGS-CNRS (Laboratoire d'Études de Genre et de Sexualité), examines the construction and perception of the orificial body in contemporary literature, cinema and graphic novels. She has led a seminar on Monique Wittig at Llibreria Finestres, whose essays she is currently co-translating into Catalan, and has taught at the University of Barcelona, Institut Mines-Télécom Business School (Évry) and the Lycée Français de Barcelone. She is currently a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral researcher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and is also a member of the Empriu housing cooperative in the La Bordeta neighbourhood.