Anna Soler-Pont founded Pontas in 1992 inspired by a conversation in Cairo with Literature Nobel Prize Naguib Mahfouz (that had taken place in October 1991). She decided to become a literary agent and began a journey overland from Barcelona to New Delhi (across Turkey, Iran and Pakistan) searching for women authors to represent internationally. Twenty years later, Pontas, based in Barcelona, is a literary and film agency representing a selection of authors from around the world. And it is also a production company that develops projects for both film and television, always adapting literary works. The Pontas team consists of eight people who annually attend major book fairs and film markets on five continents. Pontas has been present at the Frankfurt Book Fair for twenty consecutive years.
Besides Anna Soler-Pont, Pontas partners are Ricard Domingo (former director at the Planeta Group and former director of Barcelona Televisió) and Marc de Gouvenain, former editor and French translator of Scandinavian literature, one of the main prescribers of Stieg Larsson, in 2010 he was decorated by the King of Sweden with the Medal of Knight First Class of the Order of the Polar Star for his dissemination of Swedish literature.
Currently Pontas represents internationally Swedish writer Jonas Jonasson, whose first novel, “The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared”, has sold nearly four million copies in three years in various languages. It is also the agency that launched Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa, whose novel “Mornings in Jenin” remained for months in the bestseller lists in several European countries and is in the process of being adapted into a film. Pontas now represents a good selection of authors in English language, such as Alan Duff, Pete Fromm, Stephanie Benson and Jason Eric Miller, among others. And in French language, names such as Marin Ledun, Ingrid Astier, Emmanuelle Urien and Olivier Truc can also be found in our list. Spanish author Dolores Redondo is one of the latest discoveries, whose novel “The Invisible Guardian”, first volume of the “Trilogy of Baztan” will be published simultaneously in ten languages in January 2013, the film adaptation rights for the entire trilogy already being negotiated; a fairly unusual situation for an unknown author!
Other recent Pontas’ successes include the sale of the film rights of the novel “Waiting for Robert Capa” by Susana Fortes to Hollywood producer and filmmaker Michael Mann, who will produce with Columbia Pictures with a screenplay by Jez Butterworth.