This Tuesday, the Associació d’ Writers in Catalan Language (AELC) presented the Jaume Fuster prize to the Mallorcan poet Antonina Canyelles (Palma, 1942), a writer whom the president of the association highlighted that in addition to having dedicated herself exclusively to poetry for more than 45 years and “having grown like weeds on the side of the roads”, a “visionary and anticipatory character” of issues that today are “at the center of the debate”, such as feminism, gender equality, defense of language or environmentalism.
Canyelles’ literary career is unique, because after having won the Marià Aguiló prize in 1979 with his first book, Quadern de conseqüències, he did not find a publisher and had to self-publish it, but it barely had any resonance. A couple of years later he published the portfolio of poems with illustrations Patchwork, but his public voice fell silent until 2005, when he published Piercing (Lleonard Muntaner) and his work began to emerge, and especially when he met his current editor, Jon López de Viñaspre , which in 2011 inaugurated the Lapislàtzuli publishing house with its anthology Putes i consentits, a title that is not only still alive but has just released a fourth edition.
López de Viñaspre, who has been publishing the bulk of her poetry, has made the gloss, which he has defined as a prayer to the “beautiful rocker”, now that “she has reached the age of the Rolling Stones”, “to the poet of skin and muscle”, who “lives and writes very far from the stale little chapels and other crowds”, who “wanted to be a violinist and who luckily changed the bow for the pen”, “who often believes that eternal love is fought in the trench”, “she who knows that she loves herself with the liver because the heart is just a pretentious viscera”, “we ask you: may the poetic sap continue to sprinkle your veins”, and “may we never lack good poetry, that window to the world that your poems are.” The writer and editor wanted to toast “to Antonina Canyelles, Polish, red and bad whore,” because her poetry has often been irreverent and outspoken.
Canyelles, to whom the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes already paid tribute two years ago on the occasion of her 80th birthday, was grateful, acknowledging, of course, that for years “they have denied me bread and salt, but it has been going well for me.” because I am hypertensive,” she said ironically, remembering that it was difficult for her to publish regularly again and she has never received any literary prize or money again, but “my prizes have been reading clubs and institutes, I am a beloved poet.” “Maybe I do a type of poetry that is not liked in competitions – she continued – or I must have a perverse taste, because even the few times that I have been a jury in an award, none of my candidates have won.” “Since I’m very old I don’t have to play tietes,” she insisted, after assuring that “I’m not resentful.”
He also wanted to have his feet on the ground to ensure that “we writers are sometimes given excessive importance,” and that in his books, “like those of everyone else, there may be some gems, but there are also poems that They are filler” and “I also get botched, because you don’t always make masterpieces.” In addition to comparing writing to cooking, which “always begins with a stir-fry,” he has explained that he writes almost every day, and has no intention of stopping: “The day I stop writing will be the day I die.”
Catalan version, here
