‘Wenling’s’ by Gemma Ruiz Palà launched at QMUL

On October 11, the launch of Gemma Ruiz Palà’s novel Wenling’s, organised by the Centre for Catalan Studies together with Héloïse Press and Romancero Books, was held at Queen Mary University of London.

After Gemma herself read an extract from her original Catalan version, ‘Ca la Wenling’, and translator Peter Bush read the same passage in English, Jorge Gárriz of Romancero Books chaired a discussion and asked Gemma questions about her process. These included the reasons that led to Gemma writing this book, in which a series of women’s stories begin in a nail salon, and how Peter Bush faced the challenges the translation process posed, such as the presence of multilingual conversations in Catalan and Spanish in the original version. The author highlighted important themes in the book such as racism, class, feminist struggles and stereotypes, how they appear in the novel and how they affect the characters.

The event ended with a brief reception and more questions to Gemma and Peter from the attendees.