Isaias Fanlo
Isaias Fanlo is a Catalan writer, scholar, and cultural manager. Born in Lleida (Spain) in 1980, he has lived in Barcelona and Chicago and is now based in Cambridge. He is Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Iberian Cultures at the University of Cambridge and Fellow in Iberian Studies at Fitzwilliam College. His research on Iberian cultures, the performing arts, and queer theory has been published in leading academic journals and edited volumes. He also writes on culture and activism for Spanish media outlets.
In 2004 he published El llibre rosa (“The Pink Book”), a non-fiction work widely regarded as a pioneering study of gender and sexuality in Catalonia. His first novel, El pes de la boira (“The Weight of the Mist”), appeared in 2025 to critical acclaim. An ambitious queer Bildungsroman, the novel moves between historical memory and magical realism, exploring the open wounds of the past in the fictional city of Rotunda, a remote inland town surrounded by desert, marked by freezing, mist-laden winters and implacable summers.
He has recently completed his second novel, Después de la tormenta (“After the Blizzard”), a queer love story set during a long winter night in Chicago, as well as Lo errático y lo obsceno (“The Erratic and the Obscene”), a monograph on queer theatre in Spain.
Alongside his academic and literary work, Isaias Fanlo has developed an extensive career in cultural management. He has worked as an editor, dramaturgist, and content creator for Barcelona’s Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, served as artistic advisor to the Teatre Lliure, and acted as literary consultant for various projects in Barcelona and Chicago. He is the founder of Terrats en Cultura, Barcelona’s award-winning rooftop performing arts festival, which is an active member of the European Creative Rooftop Network.
He lives in the countryside with his partner, Michael, his cat Mimi, and his chickens, Pedro, Penélope, and Paloma.
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