The jury's decision has been announced by the Minister of Culture and Sports, José Guirao, at an event held at the headquarters of the Ministry, accompanied by the president of the Jury and Cervantes Prize 2018, Ida Vitale.
The jury has awarded the prize to Margarit for "his poetic work of deep transcendence and always innovative language, has enriched both the Spanish language and the Catalan language, and represents the plurality of the peninsular culture in a universal dimension of great mastery" .
Jury
It has been formed by María Paz Battaner Arias, representative of the Royal Spanish Academy; by the Argentine Academy of Letters, Pablo de Santis; by the Conference of Rectors of the Spanish Universities (CRUE), María Luisa Sotelo Vázquez; for the Union of Universities of Latin America (UDUAL), Bernal Herrera Montero; by the Cervantes Institute, Raquel Caleya Caña; by the general direction of the Book and Promotion of Reading, Eduardo Lago Martínez; by the Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain (FAPE), Arsenio Escolar Ramos; by the Latin American Federation of Journalists (FELAP), Leticia Amato; and by the International Association of Hispanists, Susan Byrne.
The last two award-winning authors, Sergio Ramírez (2017) and Ida Vitale (2018) have been present. As secretary (with voice but without vote), the director of the cabinet of the Minister of Culture and Sports, Carlos Alberdi Alonso, and as secretary of Minutes (with voice but without vote), the deputy director general of Book Promotion, Reading and the Spanish Letters, Begoña Cerro Prada.
Biography
Joan Margarit i Consarnau (Sanahuja, Lleida, 1938) is a poet and architect. He began his poetic career in 1963 publishing in Spanish songs for the choir of a single man. After a long break, he publishes, in 1975, Chronicle. From 1980 he began publishing his poems in Catalan. He has translated a good part of his production in Catalan into Spanish. As a translator, he has also been responsible for translating the work of other poets such as Thomas Hardy, Elizabeth Bishopo or Rainer Maria Rilke into Spanish or Catalan.
He has received the National Critics Award (1984 and 2008) and the Rosalia de Castro Prize (2008). He receives the 2008 National Poetry Prize from the Ministry of Culture for the work Casa de Misericordia. In 2013, the Víctor Sandoval Poetas del Mundo Latino Prize was awarded in Mexico (to the complete work), together with the Mexican poet José Emilio Pacheco, also Cervantes Prize. In 2017, he was awarded the Pablo Neruda Ibero-American Poetry Prize in Chile. In 2019 he has been awarded the Reina Sofía Iberoamerican Poetry Award.
Among the award-winning titles of his work in Catalan are Cants d'Hecatónim de Tifundis (1982), Miquel de Palol Prize and the Serra d'Or Critics Award; Vell malentès (1981), Vicent Andrés Estellés Prize and Critics of Poetry Award in Catalan; Mar d'hivern (1986), Carles Riba Prize for Poetry; The donut of the navigator (1987), Critics Award Serra d'Or; Càlcul d'estructures (2005), Critics Award Serra d'Or; Casa de Misericòrdia (2007), Cavall Verd Prize, National Premi of Literature of the Generalitat de Catalunya and Prize of the Critic of Poetry in Catalan). In 2005 Els primers freds was awarded the Cadaqués Prize to Quima Jaume. In 2015 he was awarded the Jaume Fuster Prize of the Associació d'Escriptors in Llengua Catalana.
His work has been translated into German, Basque, Hebrew, French, English, Portuguese and Russian.
Prize History
By awarding this prize, endowed with 125,000 euros, a testimony of admiration is given annually to the figure of a writer who, with all his work, has contributed to enriching the Hispanic literary legacy.
Any author whose literary work is written entirely, or in essential part, in Spanish can be awarded the Cervantes Prize. The candidates for the Prize can be presented by the Spanish Language Academies, the authors awarded in previous calls, the institutions that, by their nature, purposes or contents, are linked to the literature in Spanish and the members of the Jury.
The relation of the winners constitutes clear evidence of the significance of the Prize for culture in the Spanish language:
- 1976 Jorge Guillen
- 1977 Alejo Carpentier
- 1978 Dámaso Alonso
- 1979 Jorge Luis Borges and Gerardo Diego
- 1980 Juan Carlos Onetti
- 1981 Octavio Paz
- 1982 Luis Rosales
- 1983 Rafael Alberti
- 1984 Ernest Saturday
- 1985 Gonzalo Torrente Ballester
- 1986 Antonio Buero Vallejo
- 1987 Carlos Fuentes
- 1988 María Zambrano
- 1989 Augusto Roa Bastos
- 1990 Adolfo Bioy Casares
- 1991 Francisco Ayala
- 1992 Sweet Maria Loynaz
- 1993 Miguel Delibes
- 1994 Mario Vargas Llosa
- 1995 Camilo José Cela
- 1996 José García Nieto
- 1997 Guillermo Cabrera Infante
- 1998 José Hierro
- 1999 Jorge Edwards
- 2000 Francisco Umbral
- 2001 Álvaro Mutis
- 2002 José Jiménez Lozano
- 2003 Gonzalo Rojas
- 2004 Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio
- 2005 Sergio Pitol
- 2006 Antonio Gamoneda
- 2007 Juan Gelman
- 2008 Juan Marsé
- 2009 José Emilio Pacheco
- 2010 Ana María Matute
- 2011 Nicanor Parra
- 2012 José Manuel Caballero Bonald
- 2013 Elena Poniatowska
- 2014 Juan Goytisolo Gay
- 2015 Fernando del Paso
- 2016 Eduardo Mendoza
- 2017 Sergio Ramírez
- 2018 Ida Vitale