The Joan Margarit International Poetry Prize is born

The family of the Catalan poet Joan Margarit together with the Cervantes Institute and the publishing house La Cama Sol have signed an agreement to create the Joan Margarit International Poetry Prize, promoted to make the work of the winner of the Cervantes Prize and Queen Sofia Prize for Poetry, and author of "La Cama Sol", known internationally. The prize will be awarded annually and will reward the work of foreign poets with a consolidated and internationally recognised career, in response to the interest that Joan Margarit has always had in making his favourite poets from other languages and countries known in his two languages, Catalan and Spanish (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 (the poet's daughter), Nuccio Ordine (professor at the University of Calabria) and Ana Santos (director of the Biblioteca Nacional). In subsequent editions, the jury will be enlarged, especially with the poets who are awarded prizes. 

García Montero commented after the announcement that "few poets were at once so knowledgeable about their own tradition (in his case, his own traditions) and so curious about the traditions of other languages. Margarit was a fine translator, an astute reader, a poet who brought together in his unique voice diverse streams that were always well harmonised. That he should now give his name to a prize like this is an act of justice, literally, poetic justice.

The first edition will take place this year, 2023, with an annual award ceremony at the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute. Nominations will be open to Spanish embassies abroad, embassies in Spain of any country in the world and the directors of Cervantes institutes around the world.

La Cama Sol publishing house will publish the award speech and promote it both in Spain and abroad, with translations into Spanish, English and French. It will be a limited edition, combining poems with works of art, and will be given as a gift to those involved in the celebration of the award. The initial endowment of the Joan Margarit International Poetry Prize will be 7,000 euros. 

José Antonio Sierra, Hispanism advisor.