Antonio Gamoneda

Antonio Gamoneda Lobón (born 30 May 1931) is a Spanish poet, winner of the Cervantes Prize in 2006.

Biography

Antonio Gamoneda was born in Oviedo, Asturias, on 30 May 1931. His father, also named Antonio, was a modernist poet who published only one book, ''Otra más alta vida'' (''Another higher life'') in 1919. In 1934, already an orphan, he moved with his mother, Amelia Lobon, to León. The presence of his mother as a refuge from the horror and misery of war is seen in all his poetry. In 1936, with schools closed due to the Spanish Civil War, he became literate by reading, on his own, his father's book.

The poet lived originally in the main working-class district of León. This place was a privileged post to observe the repression carried out during the war and postwar years.

In 1941, he joined the religious school of the Augustinian Fathers and in 1943 dropped out.

The day he turned fourteen he started working as a messenger in the Banco de Comercio. He completed his pre-university studies on his own and remained in the condition of bank employee for twenty-four years until 1969.

While working at the bank he became part of the intellectual resistance to the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. He published his first book in 1960, ''Sublevación inmóvil'' (''Motionless revolt''), a work that was a runner-up for the Adonais prize. The book was a break from the traditional realistic rules of the time in Spain. In 1969 he started running the cultural services of the Diputación Provincial de León, and from 1970, the León State collection of poetry, trying to promote a progressive culture with the money of the dictatorship. He was deprived of his official status, and subsequently readmitted, by court order. During these years he began working regularly in different cultural magazines.

This first stage was followed by eight years absent from the poetry world, years strongly marked by the death of the dictator Francisco Franco and the beginning of the so-called "''transición''". The ideological and existential crisis of the poet is felt in his next book ''Descripción de la mentira'' (''A description of the lie''), León 1977, a long poem that marked a shift towards a total maturity. Later publications are ''Lápidas'' (''Tombstones'') (Madrid, 1987) and ''Edad'' (''Age''), a volume collecting all his poetry until 1987, revised by the author, and that won the National Prize for Literature in Spain.

In 1992, ''Libro del frío'' (''Book of the cold'') was published, making him one of the most important poets in Spanish. In the year 2000 the final version of this work came out, which included ''Frío de límites'' (''Cold of Limits''), a work in collaboration with Antoni Tàpies.

''Arden las pérdidas'' (''Losses are burning'') was published in 2003, a book that crowns the period started in ''Descripción de la mentira''. After that he published ''Cecilia'' (2004), named after his granddaughter, and ''La luz: Collected Poetry: (1947–2004)'', (2004).

In 2005, he was award the inaugural European Prize for Literature

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