At the end of 2024, the year that the Valencian Language Academy dedicated to the writer Maria Ibars by organizing a wide range of activities in collaboration with the Dénia City Council, the Dénia council continues with the acts of homage to the writer, adopted daughter of the city. This week the story "María Ibars" was presented in the children's library Maria Ibars. To the vora of Penyamar, to the shadow of Montgó, a little gem with texts by the writer and journalist Tony Reig and illustrations by Sofia Armengol.
The publication, coordinated by the Municipal Public Library, is aimed at students aged 8 to 11, although it has an informative character that invites reading at any age. The story will be distributed among all 4th, 5th and 6th grade students at the schools in Dénia, la Xara and Jesús Pobre. It will also be available in the libraries of the secondary schools in Dénia and in the public libraries of the Marina Alta.
The author of the texts, Toni Reig, accompanied by the mayor of Dénia, Vicent GrimaltThe councilman of Culture, Raúl García de la Reina, and the head of the Dénia Libraries area, Llúcia Signes, has acknowledged that writing about Maria Ibars has not been an easy task. “She has no great moments in history. Maria Ibars was a woman, a teacher, who gave classes and wrote at home. A simple person,” said Reig. And that is what she wanted to convey in the story: “that this normal woman is also a heroine, that you don’t need to be a superhero to have a role model.”
Toni Reig explained that to prepare the texts he has combined data from the author's biography with other data taken from reading (and sometimes re-reading) her work, based on research by Carles Mulet on the writer, "the landscaper of Dénia and the Marina Alta."
Reig has also praised the work of illustrator Sofia Armengol, who has experience in this type of publication. The artist had the challenge of imagining Maria Ibars from the few images that existed of her, until, thanks to Pepe Sala from Dianense, a large number of them were collected for the central exhibition of Any Maria Ibars, entitled Maria Ibars. A landscape of paraules. Write and live in the shadow of Montgó, inaugurated in Dénia on October 18, 2024.
The portrait of Castejon
After the presentation of the story, a portrait of Maria Ibars made by the artist at the request of the Dénia City Council was unveiled at the Espai Castejón of the Casa de Cultura. Castejón explained that he was inspired by four or five black and white photos of the writer and that he put, of course, "a lot of love" into it.
The portrait of Maria Ibars is exhibited alongside works by the painter Enrique Pastor de Velasco, the writer's son-in-law, as well as a drawing and a photograph by Patricia Payá, the author's great-great-granddaughter.
