Quick Facts
Biography
Mercè Canela (Sant Guim de Freixenet, la Segarra, 1956) is a Catalan writer and translator.
She studied archaeology in Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where she worked as a librarian later before she went to Brussels to work as a documentalist in the European Union.
She started writing when she was very young, and she considers herself basically a writer. In 1976, the publishing house La Galera published one of her books for teenagers De qui és el bosc?, and she won the Josep M. Folch i Torres award with L'escarabat verd. She published several children's and teenagers' novels later and she has won several prices for them. In 1984, she was included in the Honour List of IBBY with Asperú, joglar embruixat.
She has translated to Catalan several works in German, French and Italian. Besides, she published: Un passeig pel Poble Espanyol (Beta, Barcelona, 1998), a book which explains the history of Poble Espanyol, in Montjuïc, in Barcelona. In 1980, she was a member of Cavall Fort magazine, where she is director since 1998. She is also director in El Tatano publications.
Literature prizes
- Premi Josep Maria Folch i Torres de novel·les per a nois i noies 1976: L'escarabat verd.
- Premi Crítica Serra d'Or de literatura infantil i juvenil 1981: La fantasia inacabable d'Antoni Gaudí.
- Premi L'Esparver 1982: Lluna de tardor.
- Premi Guillem Cifre de Colonya 1983: Els set enigmes de l'iris.
- Premi Lola Anglada 1984: El planeta dels set sols.
- Premi de Literatura Infantil El Vaixell de Vapor 1991: S'ha de ser animal!.