Desperate Literature

Desperate Literature Librería Internacional. Best Used English Language Selection in Madrid! Desperate Literature is a new International bookshop in Madrid, Spain. We sell books.
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Along with the very best collection of used English books in the city, the shop also carries a large selection of quality books in Spanish, French and a variety of other languages. With a focus on fiction, poetry, noir, sci-fi and belles-lettres, the store also maintains sections (in our three major languages) in philosophy, history, art, science, sociology, film, music and eastern religion. Of course, we also have a children’s section for young readers looking to further explore their mother tongue or learn a new one. Desperate Literature strives to be a space where good literature serves as a vehicle for dynamic cultural, linguistic and social exchange between Madrileños, extranjeros and travelers from around the world. In this spirit we look forward to hosting readings, meetings, gallery shows, lectures, and more. We’re open everyday from 12h-21h. We’re not on the Internet very often because we’re in the store, reading, writing and having conversations. Please stop by and say hi or give us a call at +34 915 41 72 91. Real books. Desperate ones. Paper and glue.

11/09/2026

⭐️ Translator Alice Banks .ellen.b, gives us her recommendations ahead of her event on Friday 11th September!

- Las Cabras () - Pilar Asuero ()
- The Safekeep () - Yael van der Wouden
- Crema Solar () - Irena de la Torra ()

EVENT INFO:

📚 June 11 — 20h00 | Traducción a cuatro manos (20h): The City () / La Ciudad ()

Bilingual reading and discussion!

Katie Whittemore .whittemore1 (traductora) y Alice Banks .ellen.b (traductora) en conversación con Lara Moreno (autora)

04/09/2026

🪅 We show off some of the recent arrivals along with some of our private collection!
Come have a peek.

✨ 1950s Handbook for Hosts 🍸
✨ John Keats, Poems 🍇 from the beautiful Endymion Series...
✨ Ariel, by Sylvia Plath - 1965, 1st edition, 2nd Impression
✨ A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf - 1945, first paperback edition from
✨ The Iliad, trans. Alexander Pope, 1759

BACK-TO-SCHOOL: As we continue to prepare our sótano space for opening, we ease into the season with a workshop, a trans...
03/09/2026

BACK-TO-SCHOOL:

As we continue to prepare our sótano space for opening, we ease into the season with a workshop, a translation evening, our excellent chess night and fiction to close us off.

🖊 June 5 — 10h30 - 18h00 | Structure & Form: a one-day writing workshop with Victoria Gosling

📚 June 11 — 20h00 | Traducción a cuatro manos (20h): The City (Open Letter Books) / La Ciudad (Penguin España)

Katie Whittemore Katie Whittemore (traductora) y
Alice Banks .ellen.b (traductora) en
conversación con Lara Moreno Lara Moreno (autora)
♟ June 21 — 19h30 | CHESS NIGHT

📚 June 26 — 13h30 | ‘Fundamentally’ (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - a midday of fiction with Nussaibah Younis Nussaibah Younis

📚 June 26 — 19h30 | The Age of... Yael Van der Wouden, Nussaibah Younis Nussaibah Younis, and Jacobo Bergareche Jacobo Bergareche ... join the European Writers Salon European Writers Salon (and ourselves as booksellers) for an evening in the magnificent Ateneo de Madrid that asks: what age are we living through now, and what role do writers have in defining it? Use ‘DL’ for discount...info via European Writers Salon account!

Victoria Gosling
Open Letter Books
Penguin España
Katie Whittemoreellen.b
Lara Moreno
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Nussaibah Younis
Jacobo Bergareche
European Writers Salon
Ateneo de Madrid

BACK-TO-SCHOOL: As we continue to prepare our sótano space for opening, we ease into the season with a workshop, a trans...
03/09/2026

BACK-TO-SCHOOL:

As we continue to prepare our sótano space for opening, we ease into the season with a workshop, a translation evening, our excellent chess night and fiction to close us off.

🖊 June 5 — 10h30 - 18h00 | Structure & Form: a one-day writing workshop with Victoria Gosling

📚 June 11 — 20h00 | Traducción a cuatro manos (20h): The City (Open Letter Books) / La Ciudad (Penguin España)

Katie Whittemore Katie Whittemore (traductora) y
Alice Banks .ellen.b (traductora) en
conversación con Lara Moreno Lara Moreno (autora)
♟ June 21 — 19h30 | CHESS NIGHT

📚 June 26 — 13h30 | ‘Fundamentally’ (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - a midday of fiction with Nussaibah Younis

Victoria Gosling
Open Letter Books
Penguin España
Katie Whittemoreellen.b
Lara Moreno
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Nussaibah Younis

We’re excited to announce the winner and runners-up of this year’s prize, along with the release of ‘Eleven Stories 2026...
24/08/2026

We’re excited to announce the winner and runners-up of this year’s prize, along with the release of ‘Eleven Stories 2026’!

Mimi Kawahara takes the top spot with ‘Disaster preparedness test, ex post facto’, a ‘devastatingly intimate...portrait of mourning...that understands grief not as a problem to be solved or overcome but as a condition to be inhabited.’ (Ottessa Moshfegh, 2026 judge).

Our runners-up are Eric Baker (Eric Baker) and Emily Roese (Emily Roese) with their stories ‘This History of Violence’ and ‘Slug’.

ABOUT THE COLLECTION:
‘The Desperate Literature Short Story Prize remains a beacon for experiment in times when this is both increasingly rare and increasingly vital’
—Joanna Walsh

‘so structurally inventive’
—Ottessa Moshfegh

You can get Eleven Stories in PDF via our website and keep an eye out for stories appearing with partner journals in the coming months!

Thanks to our Judges:
Claire-Louise Bennett
Ottessa Moshfegh
Joanna Walsh

The full shortlist:
Katie Assef ()
Saad Bin Iftikhar (Saad)
Imogen Clarke (Imogen)
Christian Emecheta (emecheta Christian)
Jennifer Green
Esther Leaming (Esther)
L. J. de Pedro
Alexandra Symons-Sutcliffe (Alexandra Symons-Sutcliffe)

Thanks to our partners and particularly The de Groot Foundation for all their unfailing support! Without them, the prize wouldn’t be possible.

Our Partners include:
The de Groot Foundation
Civitella Ranieri Foundation
Tenement Press
The London Magazine
Kill Your Darlings
Helter Skelter
minor literature[s]
TLCUK

Cipher Press
Folly
Bennington Review
PÁJARO AZUL
SOUVENIR
Monitor Books


European Writers Salon

Thanks to everybody who entered the prize and, finally, thanks to our first-round readers, who have put in countless hours reading stories and selecting this wonderful shortlist.

READERS:

Vesna Marić
Kate McCully
Bárbara Bianchi


Terry Craven

Emily Westmorelandlibrarian

& Dominique Chapla

20/08/2026

💌 ‘Dark Night’ by Saint John of the Cross ()

we celebrate the double centenary of John of the Cross and the publication of Martha Sprackland ()’s translation of his poems ⭐️

we hope you enjoy the end of the summer!

02/08/2026

⛱️ INÉS RECOMIENDA ():

‘Tengo Miedo Torero’ () / ‘My Tender Matador’ ()

Del artista, escritor y periodista chileno Pedro Lemebel.

El libro ideal para despedir el verano: una lectura ágil, llena de prosa poética que no olvidarás.

¡Y, por supuesto, lo tenemos en inglés y español!

¿Con qué libro querrías que te enterraran?

⛱️ INES RECOMMENDS ():

‘Tengo Miedo Torero’ () / ‘My Tender Matador’ ()

From Chilean artist, writer and journalist Pedro Lemebel.

The ideal book to close out summer: a fast read full of poetic prose you won’t be able to forget.

And, of course, we have it in English and Spanish!

What book are you being buried with?

23/07/2026

🏖️ A range of treats for summer with our wonderful bookseller, Ollie!
☀️ What would you pick?

✨ Taiwan Travelogue, by Yáng Shuāngzǐ ()
✨ Land, by Maggie O’Farrell ()
✨ El amor en los tiempos del cólera, by Gabriel García Márquez
✨ 🍉🍉🍉
✨ ⁠Diary of a Film, by Niven Govinden (niven_govinden)
✨ Play It As It Lays, by Joan Didion ()
✨The Invention of Morel, by ⁠Adolfo Bioy Casares
✨ Las aventuras de la China Iron, by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara ()
✨ On Earth As It Is Beneath, by Ana Paula Maia ()
✨ Clock Without Hands, by Carson McCullers
✨ 🥤🥤🥤
✨ Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi (marjanesatrapi)
✨ Crush, by Richard Siken ()

21/07/2026

🚨 WORKSHOP ALERT:
Structure & Form with Victoria Gosling ( )

Join novelist Victoria Gosling (BEFORE THE RUINS, BLISS AND BLUNDER) for a one-day deep dive into structure. We’ll touch on ideas from thinkers and writers as diverse as Aristotle, Kurt Vonnegut and Carmen Maria Machado, using their work as a springboard to develop our own.

Open to writers of all levels.

“I would not be the writer I am without Victoria Gosling... her feedback has been consistently brilliant - insightful and encouraging, with valuable ‘big picture’ information on the industry as well as a knack for finding what is working in a story, and what needs work.”
— Dan Ayres

🗓️ September 5th, 10h30–18h00
💶 €80
📍 Calle de la Cava Baja 8, Madrid

🎂 ESTÁS INVITADEto our birthday bonanza this weekend12h00 | Write in our all-day Cadavre ExquisAs 2026 is the 100th Anni...
21/05/2026

🎂 ESTÁS INVITADE
to our birthday bonanza this weekend

12h00 | Write in our all-day Cadavre Exquis

As 2026 is the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Allen Ginsberg, we’re folding in a whole host of Beat Generation fun, including an ‘On the Road’-style scroll on our typewriter. We invite guests to add to the story as the evening continues

17h30 | Stierwood () sings the evening in.

💫 18h00 | Ana María Caballero () reads from her new book ‘Material’ () in discussion with Dr. Goretti González - the first big event of the day.

19h30 | A HOWL readthrough (with special guest readers) (, )

If you want to read, just sign up on the night!

20h00 | A Beat Generation salon with Isabel Castelao-Gómez (), Regina Weinreich & Robert Lee

We are joined by veritable Beat Generation legends to read, discuss and tell tales of old.

21h00 | We close the evening with DJs Brown’s Lair & Mondo Bizarro playing Disco, Latin soul, & Afrobeat







Dirección

Calle De La Cava Baja 8
Madrid
28005

Horario de Apertura

Lunes 11:00 - 14:30
17:00 - 21:00
Martes 11:00 - 14:30
17:00 - 21:00
Miércoles 11:00 - 14:30
17:00 - 21:00
Jueves 11:00 - 14:30
17:00 - 21:00
Viernes 11:00 - 14:30
17:00 - 21:00
Sábado 11:00 - 21:00
Domingo 11:00 - 14:30
17:00 - 21:30

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