Montserrat Roig

Montserrat Roig i Fransitorra (; Barcelona, 13 June 1946 – 10 November 1991) was a Catalan writer of novels, short stories and articles.

Biography Roig was born in 1946 into a liberal middle-class family in Barcelona's Eixample neighborhood, the sixth of seven children of lawyer and writer Tomàs Roig i Llop and Albina Fransitorra. She was born and lived most of her life on Bailén Street.

Education She began her schooling in 1951 at the Col·legi Mari del Diví Pastor, also on Bailén Street. She earned a degree in philosophy and letters from the University of Barcelona in 1968 and a doctorate in 1970. She came of age during the Franco dictatorship, a time when Catalan language and culture were heavily repressed, which deeply influenced her later literary and political engagement.

Literary and academic career

In 1970, Roig won the Víctor Català prize for Molta roba i poc sabó... i tan neta que la volen, a compilation of short stories, and began to dedicate herself to writing literature. She began a literary cycle composed of works such as Ramona adéu (1972), which portrays three generations of women – grandmother, mother and daughter – who live their own stories with key moments in Catalan history as a background, or El temps de les cireres (1977), starring the same characters, for which Roig received the "Premi Sant Jordi de novel·la" in 1976. later collected in two books of the same title.

Roig's 1977 nonfiction book Els catalans als camps nazis ("Catalans in the Nazi Camps"), which included testimony from Catalans who survived deportation to Nazi concentration camps, was honored with the Serra d'Or critics' prize. Her research for this book involved direct interviews with survivors and visits to former concentration camps. Roig approached the Holocaust from a humanist and testimonial perspective, seeking to restore dignity to those who had been forgotten by Spanish official narratives. Her book L'agulla daurada ("The Golden Spire"), inspired by a two-month stay in Leningrad, dealt with the siege of Leningrad during the Second World War and earned her the National Prize of Catalan Literature (essay) in 1986. She was involved in movements defending women's reproductive rights and contributed to feminist congresses and publications during the Spanish transition to democracy.

Death During her stay at the University of Arizona, Roig began to feel unwell and, upon returning to Europe, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. Her final article for Avui was published the day before her death. Montserrat Roig died in Barcelona on 10 November 1991, at the age of 45,

Awards Víctor Català Award 1970 for Molta roba i poc sabó (Lots of clothing and little soap) Recull-David Puig i Llensa de narración 1970 for Aquella petita volta blava Sant Jordi Award 1976 for El temps de les cireres (Cherry season) Crítica Serra d'Or Award for historical report 1978 por Els catalans als camps nazis (The Catalans in Nazi camps) Omnium Cultura Award 1980 for the interviews on TVE on the programme Clar i català (Clear and Catalan) Award for Catalan Literature by the Generalidad de Cataluña 1986 for L'agulla daurada (The golden spire)

Works Molta roba i poc sabó... i tan neta que la volen, 1970 Ramona, adéu, 1972 El temps de les cireres, 1977 English translation by Julia Sanches, The Time of Cherries, Modern Library edition, 2026 Els catalans als camps nazis, 1977 L'hora violeta, 1980 ¿Tiempo de mujer? 1980 L'Òpera quotidiana, 1982 L'agulla daurada, 1985, 1986 National Prize of Catalan Literature La veu melodiosa, 1987 El cant de la joventut, 1989 English translation by Tiago Miller, The Song of Youth, shortlisted for 2022 Republic of Consciousness Prize Reivindicació de la senyora Clito Mestres (play), 1990 An English translation, The Vindication of Senyora Clito Mestres, opened at the Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon, Canada in 1997. Digues que m'estimes encara que sigui mentida, 1991

Legacy In 2016, on the 25th anniversary of her death, the city of Barcelona organized a series of tributes under the slogan "Roig, 25 anys". Streets and libraries in Catalonia bear her name, and her work remains essential reading in Catalan literature curricula.