Today the creation of the Joan Margarit International Poetry Prize was announced, promoted to publicize the work of the poet Joan Margarit, Cervantes Prize and Reina Sofía Poetry Prize winner, and author of La Cama Sol.
The award will be held annually and will reward the work of foreign poets with a consolidated and internationally recognized career, responding to the interest that Joan Margarit always had in making known in her two languages, Catalan and Spanish, her favorite poets from other languages and countries (he translated Thomas Hardy, Rainer Maria RIlke and Elizabeth Bishop, among others).
The jury for this first edition will be made up of Javier Santiso (founder of La Cama Sol), Luis García Montero (director of the Cervantes Institute), Mònica Margarit (daughter of the poet), Nuccio Ordine (professor at the University of Calabria) and Ana Santos (director of the National Library). In the following editions the jury will be expanded, especially with the poets who are awarded.
Montero commented after the announcement that “few poets were both so knowledgeable about their own tradition (in his case, their own traditions) and so curious about the traditions of other languages. Margarit was a fine translator, a shrewd reader, a poet who brought together in his unique voice diverse flows always well harmonized. That he now names an award like this is an act of justice, literally, poetic ”.
The first edition will take place this year, 2023, and will have an annual award ceremony at the Instituto Cervantes headquarters. Spanish embassies abroad, the embassies in Spain of any country in the world and the directors of the Cervantes institutes from all over the world may submit applications.
La Cama Sol publishing house will publish the award-giving speech and will promote it both in Spain and abroad, with two translations into Spanish, English and French. It will be a limited edition, which will combine poems with works of art, and which will be given as gifts to the people involved in the award celebration. The initial endowment of the Joan Margarit International Poetry Prize will be €7,000
