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The writer and journalist Empar Moliner will be resident at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC) throughout 2024, a period in which she will intensify her connection with the University, after giving a writing workshop in recent months. As the winner of the 3rd UPCArts writing residency, the writer will receive a grant of 2,000 euros, will have access to teaching and research spaces, and will participate in University activities. As a result of this experience, Empar Moliner will create a literary work that will be published by Publicacions UPC.
For Empar Moliner, this residency is an opportunity to create synergies with the UPC community: “Through my work and my interactions with the university community, I aspire to foster an enriching dialogue and inspire creativity and critical thinking between the student body and the UPC staff.” In this sense, Empar Moliner declares: “I like the stories of people who dedicate themselves to science and seeing how they perceive art. “At the end of the day, writing is like cooking, it is a habit.”
Empar Moliner i Ballesteros (Santa Eulalia de Ronçana, 1966), who studied Journalism, is currently a contributor to ‘El Matí de Catalunya Radio’ and co-host of ‘Els Matins de TV3’, as well as the program ‘Tot es mou’, in which it has its own section, ‘EL VAR de l’Empar’.
Along his career he has published opinion articles in newspapers such as El País, Ara and L’Avui, and has worked on the newsreels of COM Ràdio. His literary output includes nine works in Catalan, some of which have been translated into Spanish, German, English and Polish.
In 2022 he won the Ramon Llull Award for the work ‘Benvolguda’; in 2005, the Letra de Oro Award for ‘I love you if I’ve been drinking’, and in 2000, the Josep Pla Award for ‘Feli, esthéticienne’. He has also won the Premio Mercè Rodoreda de cuentos y narraciones in 2015 for ‘I do all this because I am very afraid’.
The presentation of Empar Moliner as the winner of the third UPCArts writing residency has been made within the framework of the celebration of Sant Jordi’s Day at the UPC, the Sarau de Sant Jordi, in which the community has had the opportunity to walk among books and roses, enjoy music and attend various award ceremonies.
Interaction between literature and university activity
The writing residency organized by the UPCArts cultural program has the objective of promoting the participation of writers in the cultural and community life of the UPC to bring the general public closer, through contemporary literary work, teaching, research and transfer of University technology.
The first UPCArts writing residency was obtained by the writer and scientific communicator Jorge Carrión, who wrote the work ‘The vocabulary of the imminent Future’, and the second by the journalist and scientific communicator Xavier Duran, founding partner of the Catalan Association of Scientific Communication (ACCC ).
