Chus Pato was awarded the National Poetry Prize 2024granted by the Ministry of Culture and endowed with 30,000 euros, for the works Sonora (Xeres). Published in Galician, the collection of poems is currently being translated into Spanish by Gonzalo Hermo for the Ultramarinos publishing house.
The jury emphasized that the book Maria Jesus Pato Diazfull name of the author, is “an experimental work, an expansive and concentrated conversation between the poem and death, which, after the mother’s orphanagedraws the reader into the depths of his own lineage. A true pivot of Galician poetry, Chus Pato explores new ways of deconstructing and reconstructing the frameworks of traditional poetic thought.
The collection of poems “creates textual spaces full of leaks: rhetorical, semantic, capable of hybridizing different codes in which all its inextinguishable sonic power is displayed”, according to the jury. Furthermore, “in Sonorapersonal, social and political memory whispers the multiple voices of one of the most daring contemporary poets“, added the minutes, which concluded: “Chus Pato shows us the approach of poetry as a transformative element of language.
Women, poets and Galicians
In its last edition, the prize rewarded Yolande Castanojoining a long list of winners, including Miren Agur Meabe, Aurora Luque, Pillar Pallarés or Antònia Vicens, among others. However, what is truly remarkable is the hegemony of Galician poetry achieved by women in this award. Sonora This is the fourth collection of poems by a Galician poet written in this language who, in the last six years, has won the National Poetry Prize. In 2019, he achieved this Pilar Pallaresin 2020 Olga Novo and in 2023 the aforementioned Castaño.
The author of Subjectlast year’s winning work, explained it in El Cultural with this eloquence: “Galician poetry responds to a secular and very ancient tradition that comes from the 13th century, from medieval troubadours to a visible leader who is significantly a woman, Rosalia de Castro. We were not born of spontaneous generation, but the fact that our modern literature was founded by a woman as powerful as she is a big part of it.
Furthermore, Castaño added: “Galician poetry has enormous creative autonomy who never felt subsidiary or indebted to anything. Not at all. And before, it seemed that we were talking about a small foreign literature introduced into our territory. Far from frustrating us, this neglect for so long has brought out the best version of usmade us not lower our guard, demonstrate our literary quality, the capacity for risk and the creative ambition that would allow us to be at the level of any European literature.
Born in Ourense in 1955, Chus Pato is a Galician-language poet, author of several collections of poems for which she has received awards such as the Spanish National Critics Prize, in the Galician poetry category. Her poems have been published in countries such as Argentina, Chile, Portugal, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Russia, France and Belgium, among others, and her work has been collected in dozens of national and international anthologies.
His first poems appeared in the magazine Writing (1984) and, subsequently, samples of his poetic work appeared in magazines Lights of Galiza, The celebration gives a silent word, Andaina, Gume Olisbos, Review of letters, Dorna either Orion’s Keyas well as in the books published by the Condado Poetry Festival.
Among his collections of poetry stand out: Urania (1991), Heloise (1994), work translated into Spanish by La Palma editions, Fascination (1995), Nineveh (1996), for which she received the Losada Diéguez Prize, Prepare (1996), m-Tala (Xerais), A Ganges of words (Bilingual Galician-Spanish anthology, 2003), Charenton (2004), Born in a republic of trees (2010), Leviathan Meat (2013), a free favor (2019) and Sonora (2023). On September 23, 2017, Pato entered the Royal Academy of Galicia. Additionally, she is a member of PEN Club, Redes Escarlata and Mujeres y Letras.
The jury was chaired by María José Gálvez Salvador, Director General of Books, Comics and Reading of the Ministry of Culture; and Almudena Hernández de la Torre Chicote, Deputy Assistant Director of the Subdirectorate General for the Promotion of Books, Reading and Spanish Literature, served as Vice-President.
Carme Riera, proposed by the Royal Spanish Academy, is a member; Luciano Rodríguez Gómez, for the Royal Academy of Galicia/Real Academia Galega; Patxi Juaristi, for the Royal Academy of the Basque Language/Euskaltzaindia; Alexandre Bataller, for the Institute of Catalan Studies/Institut d’Estudis Catalans; Vicenta Tasa, for the Valencian Academy of Languages/Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua; Yolanda Morató, for the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE); Jordi Doce, for the Collegiate Association of Writers of Spain (ACE); Noni Benegas, for the Spanish Association of Literary Critics; Carmen Sigüenza, for the Federation of Journalists Associations of Spain (FAPE); Carmen Mejía, for the Institute of Feminist Research of the Complutense University of Madrid; Laura Casielles, for the Ministry of Culture and Yolanda Castaño, author awarded in the previous call.
