Anna Aguilar-Amat
Encyclopedia
Anna Aguilar-Amat is a Catalan
poet
, translator
, researcher and university professor in Terminology and Computational Linguistics
. She writes primarily in Catalan
(as a poet, she writes exclusively in Catalan, a language which she also uses for some of her essays and studies as well) but also has some work in Spanish
(primarily essays and studies).
from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where she now teaches Terminology and Computational Linguistics
at the Translation Faculty and has written several specialised texts in that field. Although she received some literary awards as a student and has written the lyrics for various musicians, she came to the foreground of the contemporary Catalan poetry scene when she was awarded three of the most prestigious and traditional prizes for Catalan poetry in two consecutive years: the 'Jocs Florals' of the city of Barcelona (Premi Englantina d'Or als Jocs Florals de Barcelona 2000) for her first published work, the book Petrolier (Oil Tanker, series "Edicions de la Guerra", Editorial Denes, Paiporta, València, 2003), the ‘Carles Riba Award’ (Premi Carles Riba 2000) for Trànsit entre dos vols (Transit between Two Flights, Edicions Proa, Barcelona
, 2001), and the ‘Màrius Torres Award’ (Premi Màrius Torres 2001) for Música i escorbut (Music and Scurvy, Edicions 62, Barcelona
, 2002, published in English as an e-book by Sandstone Press).
Together with the well-known Catalan poet, Francesc Parcerisas, she has also published the poetry book Coses Petites : poemes a quatre mans (Little Things: Poems by Two Hands, Miquel Plana, Olot
, 2002), with illustrations by the publisher, Miquel Plana, and the book of essays, El placer de la lectura (The Pleasure of Reading, Editorial Síntesis, Madrid
, 2004, in Spanish
).
Her fourth book of poems is Jocs de l'oca (The Goose Games, Servei de Publicacions, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra
, 2006). The poems in the book are laid out like the 63 squares of the board game (Game of the Goose
) and the book can be "played" as well as read.
Her poetic work is included in various anthologies of Catalan poetry and she has been translated into Arabic, English
, Finnish
, French
, Italian
, Macedonian
, Sardinian
, Slovene, Spanish
and Ukrainian
. She has been included in the anthology New European Poets, edited by Wayne Miller & Kevin Prufer (Greywolf Press, Minnesota
, 2008, ISBN-13: 978-1555974923, translations of Aguilar-Amat's poems by Anna Crowe). She also forms part of the Scottish Poetry Library
(Project Ariane, European Union
, 2001 and 2004).
Since 2003, she has been president of QUARKpoesia (Aula de Poesia de la Universitat Autònoma), a university association promoting poetry and translation of poetry from less translated languages (minority literatures). In 2006, she organized and launched the poetry publication series, Refraccions (Refractions), dedicated primarily to publishing bilingual poetry books, through the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona's publishing office, the Servei de Publicacions.
As an excellent performer, she has toured far and wide reciting her poetry. She has participated in the major festivals of Catalonia
and València, including the "Setmana de Poesia de Barcelona 2001" (Barcelona Poetry Week, considered the most prestigious poetry festival of Catalonia), and has organized a number of poetry readings at the university, as well as inviting guest speakers from abroad. On the international level, she has recited in various countries, the latest being Argentina
(2010) and Ukraine
(International Literary Festival of Lviv, September 2010), earlier festivals including StAnza, Scotland's Poetry Festival (2000), as well as a recital at the Nuyorican Poets Café
("Catalan Poets Pay Homage to Pedro Pietri", World Voices Festival, NY, 2007).
Her poetry surprises with its radical authenticity, which manifests itself through a combination of narrative, lyricism and original imagery.
Catalan people
The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, translator
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
, researcher and university professor in Terminology and Computational Linguistics
Computational linguistics
Computational linguistics is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the statistical or rule-based modeling of natural language from a computational perspective....
. She writes primarily in Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
(as a poet, she writes exclusively in Catalan, a language which she also uses for some of her essays and studies as well) but also has some work in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
(primarily essays and studies).
Biography
Anna Aguilar-Amat has a PhDPHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where she now teaches Terminology and Computational Linguistics
Computational linguistics
Computational linguistics is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the statistical or rule-based modeling of natural language from a computational perspective....
at the Translation Faculty and has written several specialised texts in that field. Although she received some literary awards as a student and has written the lyrics for various musicians, she came to the foreground of the contemporary Catalan poetry scene when she was awarded three of the most prestigious and traditional prizes for Catalan poetry in two consecutive years: the 'Jocs Florals' of the city of Barcelona (Premi Englantina d'Or als Jocs Florals de Barcelona 2000) for her first published work, the book Petrolier (Oil Tanker, series "Edicions de la Guerra", Editorial Denes, Paiporta, València, 2003), the ‘Carles Riba Award’ (Premi Carles Riba 2000) for Trànsit entre dos vols (Transit between Two Flights, Edicions Proa, Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, 2001), and the ‘Màrius Torres Award’ (Premi Màrius Torres 2001) for Música i escorbut (Music and Scurvy, Edicions 62, Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, 2002, published in English as an e-book by Sandstone Press).
Together with the well-known Catalan poet, Francesc Parcerisas, she has also published the poetry book Coses Petites : poemes a quatre mans (Little Things: Poems by Two Hands, Miquel Plana, Olot
Olot
Olot is the capital of the comarca of the Garrotxa, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain.- Etymology :The etymology of Olot is not clear and there are several hypotheses...
, 2002), with illustrations by the publisher, Miquel Plana, and the book of essays, El placer de la lectura (The Pleasure of Reading, Editorial Síntesis, Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, 2004, in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
).
Her fourth book of poems is Jocs de l'oca (The Goose Games, Servei de Publicacions, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra
Bellaterra
Bellaterra is a wealthy quarter of Cerdanyola del Vallès, in the metropolitan area of Barcelona . It's famous for being the location of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona...
, 2006). The poems in the book are laid out like the 63 squares of the board game (Game of the Goose
Game of the Goose
The Game Of The Goose is a board game with uncertain origins. Some people connect the game with the Phaistos Disc , others claim that it was originally a gift from Francesco I de' Medici of Florence to King Philip II of Spain sometime between 1574 and 1587, while the latest theories attribute to...
) and the book can be "played" as well as read.
Her poetic work is included in various anthologies of Catalan poetry and she has been translated into Arabic, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Macedonian
Macedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
, Sardinian
Sardinian
Sardinian can refer to:* Sardinia* Sardinian people* Sardinian language* Sardinian...
, Slovene, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
. She has been included in the anthology New European Poets, edited by Wayne Miller & Kevin Prufer (Greywolf Press, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, 2008, ISBN-13: 978-1555974923, translations of Aguilar-Amat's poems by Anna Crowe). She also forms part of the Scottish Poetry Library
Scottish Poetry Library
The Scottish Poetry Library was founded in 1984 by the poet Tessa Ransford. It originally had two staff members, including Scottish poet, Tom Hubbard, and 300 books, but has since expanded considerably to containing 30,000 items of Scottish and international poetry...
(Project Ariane, European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, 2001 and 2004).
Since 2003, she has been president of QUARKpoesia (Aula de Poesia de la Universitat Autònoma), a university association promoting poetry and translation of poetry from less translated languages (minority literatures). In 2006, she organized and launched the poetry publication series, Refraccions (Refractions), dedicated primarily to publishing bilingual poetry books, through the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona's publishing office, the Servei de Publicacions.
As an excellent performer, she has toured far and wide reciting her poetry. She has participated in the major festivals of Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
and València, including the "Setmana de Poesia de Barcelona 2001" (Barcelona Poetry Week, considered the most prestigious poetry festival of Catalonia), and has organized a number of poetry readings at the university, as well as inviting guest speakers from abroad. On the international level, she has recited in various countries, the latest being Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
(2010) and Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
(International Literary Festival of Lviv, September 2010), earlier festivals including StAnza, Scotland's Poetry Festival (2000), as well as a recital at the Nuyorican Poets Café
Nuyorican Poets Café
The Nuyorican Poets Café is a non-profit organization in Alphabet City, Manhattan. It is a bastion of the Nuyorican art movement in New York City, USA, and has become a forum for poetry, music, hip hop, video, visual arts, comedy and theatre.-History:...
("Catalan Poets Pay Homage to Pedro Pietri", World Voices Festival, NY, 2007).
Her poetry surprises with its radical authenticity, which manifests itself through a combination of narrative, lyricism and original imagery.
Poetry
- Petrolier (Oil Tanker), series "Edicions de la Guerra", Editorial Denes, Paiporta, València, 2003 (awarded the "Jocs Florals" of the city of Barcelona = Premi Englantina d'Or als Jocs Florals de Barcelona 2000).
- Trànsit entre dos vols (Transit between Two Flights), Edicions Proa, BarcelonaBarcelonaBarcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, 2001 (Premi Carles Riba = Carles Riba Award, 2000). - Música i escorbut (Music and Scurvy), Edicions 62, BarcelonaBarcelonaBarcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, 2002 (Premi Màrius Torrs = Màrius Torres Award, 2001) - Coses Petites : poemes a quatre mans (Little Things: Poems by Two Hands), co-authored by Francesc Parcerisas, with illustrations by the publisher. Miquel Plana Publisher, OlotOlotOlot is the capital of the comarca of the Garrotxa, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain.- Etymology :The etymology of Olot is not clear and there are several hypotheses...
, 2002. - Music and Scurvy, translation from the Catalan of the book Música i escorbut by Anna Crowe, Sandstone Press, ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, 2005 (ISBN-13: 978-1905207022). - Jocs de l'oca (The Goose Games), Servei de Publicacions, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, BellaterraBellaterraBellaterra is a wealthy quarter of Cerdanyola del Vallès, in the metropolitan area of Barcelona . It's famous for being the location of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona...
, 2006. - Càrrega de color (Color Load), Editorial Meteora, BarcelonaBarcelonaBarcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, 2011.
- Numerous contributions to Catalan literary journals.
Anthologized as a poet
Anna Aguilar-Amat has been anthologized as a poet in the following books, among others:- Sol de sal. La nueva poesía catalana (Sun of Salt: New Catalan Poetry), translated into SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
by Jordi Virallonga. DVD Ediciones, BarcelonaBarcelonaBarcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, 2001. - EPIC poem-postcards. Scottish Poetry LibraryScottish Poetry LibraryThe Scottish Poetry Library was founded in 1984 by the poet Tessa Ransford. It originally had two staff members, including Scottish poet, Tom Hubbard, and 300 books, but has since expanded considerably to containing 30,000 items of Scottish and international poetry...
, 2001. - The EmLit Project: European minority literatures in translation, Brunel U. Press, 2003 (ISBN 1902316363).
- Bouesia 2006, regsexcital de bouversos (Anthology of poems from the poetry festival called Bouesia, DeltebreDeltebreDeltebre is a municipality in the comarca of the Baix Ebre in Catalonia, Spain. It was created in 1977 when the communities of Jesús i Maria and la Cava seceded from the municipality of Tortosa. The municipality occupies much of the northern half of the Ebre delta, on the left bank of the river....
). Arola Editors, TarragonaTarragonaTarragona is a city located in the south of Catalonia on the north-east of Spain, by the Mediterranean. It is the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and the capital of the Catalan comarca Tarragonès. In the medieval and modern times it was the capital of the Vegueria of Tarragona...
, 2006. - Light off water : XXV Catalan Poems 1978-2002, Carcanet, Scottish Poetry LibraryScottish Poetry LibraryThe Scottish Poetry Library was founded in 1984 by the poet Tessa Ransford. It originally had two staff members, including Scottish poet, Tom Hubbard, and 300 books, but has since expanded considerably to containing 30,000 items of Scottish and international poetry...
, 2007 (ISBN 1857549163). - New European Poets, edited by Wayne Miller & Kevin Prufer. Greywolf Press, MinnesotaMinnesotaMinnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, 2008 (ISBN-13: 978-1555974923). - Eròtiques i despentinades. Un recorregut de cent anys per la poesia catalana amb veu de dona (Erotic and with their hair down: A trip through a hundred years of Catalan poetry with a woman's voice), Encarna Sant-Celoni i Verger, ed. Illustrations by Maria Montes. Arola Editors, TarragonaTarragonaTarragona is a city located in the south of Catalonia on the north-east of Spain, by the Mediterranean. It is the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and the capital of the Catalan comarca Tarragonès. In the medieval and modern times it was the capital of the Vegueria of Tarragona...
, 2008. - Poetàrium: Contemporary Catalan Poetry, Institut Ramon Llull (Government of Catalonia & Government of the Balearic Islands), Barcelona, 2009 (the anthology is a selection of 34 contempotary poets the government wished to showcase from among the many that are active). (In EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
).
Essay
- El placer de la lectura (The Pleasure of Reading), Editorial Síntesis, MadridMadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, 2004 (collection of essays, in SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
). - Numerous articles in journals.
External Links
- Anna Aguilar-Amat's official website (in CatalanCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
) - "Qui és qui de les lletres catalanes" (Who's Who in Catalan Letters), official website of the Catalan Government (in CatalanCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
) - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Faculty, Curriculum Vitae of Anna Aguilar-Amat (in CatalanCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
) - Biography at "Corpus Literari" (in CatalanCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
) - Six poems in the "Barcelona Review", Catalan edition, No. 43, July-August 2004 (in CatalanCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
) - Anna Aguilar-Amat, biography, poemes and recordings of her reading her poems at Poetàrium, LlullTV, Institut Ramon Llull website (biography and poems in the CatalanCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
original, and in EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
and SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
translation) - REVIEW: THE EMLIT PROJECT: EUROPEAN MINORITY LITERATURES IN TRANSLATION, by Thalia Pandiri, in Metamorphoses, a Journal of Literary Translation, with a poem by Anna Aguilar Amat in the CatalanCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
and EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.