Jo sé per què canta l’ocell engabiat (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings). Barcelona: International Catalan Institute for Peace; Angle Editorial, 2023. Classics of Peace and Nonviolence, No. 22
This first volume of Maya Angelou’s autobiographical novels, published in 1969, catapulted her—born in 1928—into international recognition. It recounts her harrowing childhood in a small town in Arkansas and her adolescence in various cities in California. From a very young age, Angelou was raised by her grandmother along with her older brother, Bailey. After a traumatic experience at the age of eight, she stopped speaking for the next five years. Her account, both heart-wrenching and beautiful, is a story of survival and a powerful denunciation of racism. A literary testimony that extends far beyond her personal story, it portrays everyday life under racial segregation. It gives voice to a significant portion of the Black population in the United States during the first half of the 20th century.
Despite her triple marginalisation at the time—being a woman, Black, and poor—and the dramatic circumstances of her life, Angelou’s writing is luminous: vital and sorrowful, balanced and profoundly moving. A universal voice that has captivated millions of readers.
Maya Angelou
She was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1928 and spent most of her childhood with her grandmother in rural Arkansas. She held a variety of jobs before achieving success as a nightclub singer and dancer. In the 1960s, she became a prominent activist in the civil rights movement. With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), the first of seven autobiographical volumes, she gained worldwide fame. In addition to being recognised as one of the leading poets and writers of the 20th century in the United States, she collaborated widely in theatre, cinema, and television. She died in 2014.
Blanca Busquets
She holds a degree in Translation and Interpreting from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She has worked in the publishing sector in Catalonia. She currently resides in Sweden and specialises in literary translation from Norwegian, Swedish, and English into Catalan. Some of the authors she has translated include Ursula K. Le Guin, Hanne Ørstavik, N. K. Jemisin, Tarjei Vesaas, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o.
ICIP and the “Classics of Peace and Nonviolence” collection
This is the twenty-second title in the “Classics of Peace and Nonviolence” series, co-published with Angle Editorial. The collection aims to contribute to the progressive establishment of a culture of peace and the eradication of sociopolitical violence. Together we have published around twenty books, including Thoreau: An Essential Biography by Antonio Casado da Rocha; Frames of War by Judith Butler; The Cry of Conscience by Martin Luther King Jr.; An Interrupted Life by Etty Hillesum; The Adventures of Wesley Jackson by William Saroyan; and Lay Down Your Arms! by Bertha von Suttner.