PHOTO: AUTHOR’S ARCHIVE
MANUEL FORCANO (born Barcelona, 1968) has a PhD in Semitic Philology. He completed his studies in Israel, Syria and Egypt, and has worked as a lecturer in Hebrew and Aramaic at the University of Barcelona (1996-2004). He has translated literary works from Hebrew (Yehuda Amichai, Pinhas Sade, Ronny Someck, Amos Oz), Arabic (The Travels of Ibn Battuta), from French (Gabriele D’Annunzio’s Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien, and the complete Catalan version of The Travels of Marco Polo), from English (Pharos and Pharillon, an Evocation of Alexandria by E. M. Forster), and Italian Baroque opera libretti. Published anthologies of his own poems include Corint (Corinth, winner of the Barcelona Jocs Florals Prize, 2000), Com un persa (Like a Persian, the Tivoli International Prize, 2002), El tren de Bagdad (The Baghdad Train, Carles Riba Prize, 2003), and Llei d’estrangeria (Law Governing Aliens, Qwerty Prize, 2008). He has worked as a researcher and playwright at the Jordi Savall Early Music International Centre Foundation since 2004.