Celebrated Scottish author Ali Smith will deliver Barcelona’s traditional Pregón de la Lectura (Reading Proclamation), the prestigious speech that officially opens the city’s beloved Sant Jordi festivities. The Barcelona City Council announced this week.
Your browser does not support the video tag.
The event will take place on the eve of Saint George’s Day, 22 April 2026, at 6:00 PM in the historic Saló de Cent of the City Council building. Smith’s proclamation will set the literary tone for Sant Jordi, Catalonia’s unique celebration of books and roses, transforming Barcelona’s streets into a massive open-air book market.
A Focus on Libraries and Community
This year’s proclamation holds special significance, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of Biblioteques de Barcelona, the city’s public library network. The city’s Institute of Culture (ICUB) expects Smith to champion public libraries as vital community hubs. The author of works such as Public Libraries will reportedly advocate for these services as “essential places of freedom, where culture is a universal right.”
This proclamation marks the start of one of Barcelona’s largest annual public events. As the city prepares for an influx of residents and tourists, authorities are planning accordingly. Barcelona is set to deploy 256 barriers for Sant Jordi 2026 to ensure public safety amid the celebrations.
After her address, Ali Smith will converse with Dolors Udina, her esteemed Catalan translator. Their dialogue will explore Smith’s extensive body of work and the formative role reading and libraries have played throughout her life, offering unique insight into her creative process.
An Author of International Acclaim
Ali Smith, born in Inverness, Scotland, in 1962, has become one of the most inventive and acclaimed voices in contemporary British literature. Before dedicating herself to writing full-time, she taught at the University of Strathclyde and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Smith is widely known for her innovative and deeply humane novels, particularly the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted ‘Seasonal Quartet’-Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer-published between 2016 and 2020. Her other significant works include How to be Both, which won the Goldsmiths Prize and the Costa Novel of the Year award. Her most recent essay, A Woolf of One’s Own, enters into a dialogue with the legacy of Virginia Woolf.
Her selection for the Sant Jordi proclamation, first reported by 20 Minutos Barcelona, underscores the city’s international cultural outlook and its deep-rooted connection to the literary world. By choosing a figure who consistently explores the power of stories and community, Barcelona reinforces the core values at the heart of its most cherished festival.
