Today we introduce Núria Bendicho, the Catalan writer of our powerful book Dead Lands.
Núria started her passion for reading and writing books from an early age: ‘I must have been eight or nine years old. It wasn’t a mere impulse, but an obligation. I felt I had to be a writer, no matter what it took.
My grandfather, who died the year before I was born, left me a large collection of classics of Catalan literature. I dusted them off and devoured them, working my way through writers such as Víctor Català, Aurora Bertrana, Miquel Llor, Juli Vallmitjana. I began to value my own tradition, and felt my heartbeat quicken with every page. Then I turned to Spanish realism, later French naturalism. I stumbled—by chance or luck—on Faulkner, and discovered his disciples. I had found my natural interests: poverty, illness, exploitation, the condition of women, the question of evil. The authors I admired shared similarities that I, too, wished to capture and make mine. I needed to pay homage to those from whom I had learned not only the art of writing, but also, and most importantly, to observe the world around me deliberately, philosophically, with a critical eye.
Literature is nothing more than the craft of applying fresh brushstrokes along the path the masters have laid out for you.’
Núria Bendicho’s work questions human nature and takes us into a sordid world from which is difficult to emerge without feeling anger or compassion. 

Let´s help minority voices gain the recognition they deserve.
Let´s make the invisible visible.