María Concepción Zardoya González, also known as Concha Zardoya, (14 November 1914 – 21 April 2004) was a Chilean poet and literary critic. During her career, she published nearly 40 poetry collections and won multiple literary awards. Born in Chile, she moved to Spain at the age of 17 and lived through the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

. She graduated from the University of Madrid and later lived in the United States for nearly 30 years, teaching

Spanish literature Spanish literature generally refers to literature ( Spanish poetry, prose, and drama) written in the Spanish language within the territory that presently constitutes the Kingdom of Spain. Its development coincides and frequently intersects wit ...

at multiple universities, including the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

and

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. She wrote numerous essays, children's literature, screenplays, and a biography of the poet

Miguel Hernández Miguel Hernández Gilabert (30 October 1910 – 28 March 1942 ) was a 20th-century Spanish-language poet and playwright associated with the Generation of '27 and the Generation of '36 movements. Born and raised in a family of low resources, h ...

. Some of her stories were published under the pseudonym Concha de Salamanca.

Early life in Chile

María Concepción Zardoya González was born on 14 November 1914, in

Valparaíso Valparaíso (; ) is a major city, seaport, naval base, and educational centre in the commune of Valparaíso, Chile. "Greater Valparaíso" is the second largest metropolitan area in the country. Valparaíso is located about northwest of Santiago ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

to Concepción González Ortiz and Alfonso Zardoya Francés, who were from the Spanish communities of Cantabria and

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

. She had both

osteoporosis Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disorder characterized by low bone mass, micro-architectural deterioration of bone tissue leading to bone fragility, and consequent increase in fracture risk. It is the most common reason for a broken bone ...

and

asthma Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, cou ...

. She graduated from Liceo nº 2 in Valparaíso in 1930.

Emigration to Madrid

In 1932, when Zardoya was 17 years old, her family emigrated to Spain. They first lived in

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

, then in Barcelona, before eventually settling in Madrid. She studied at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Madrid from 1934 to 1936 where she was a student of

José Ortega y Gasset José Ortega y Gasset (; 9 May 1883 – 18 October 1955) was a Spanish philosopher and essayist. He worked during the first half of the 20th century, while Spain oscillated between monarchy, republicanism, and dictatorship. His philosoph ...

and

Américo Castro Américo Castro y Quesada (May 4, 1885 – July 25, 1972) was a Spanish cultural historian, philologist, and literary critic who challenged some of the prevailing notions of Spanish identity, raising controversy with his conclusions that Spaniard ...

. In Madrid she became acquainted with the Chilean poets

Pablo Neruda Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...

and Gabriela Mistral. Her education was interrupted by the outbreak of the

. Zardoya moved to Valencia during the

siege of Madrid The siege of Madrid was a two-and-a-half-year siege of the Republican-controlled Spanish capital city of Madrid by the Nationalist armies, under General Francisco Franco, during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). The city, besieged from Octo ...

where she studied library science. She developed an interest in Communism and leftist politics and worked at Cultura Popular, an organisation that hosted cultural events and established libraries for soldiers and workers in the war effort. She read her poetry on the radio.

Writing career

Zardoya's only brother, Alfonso, died during the civil war. She started writing poetry and published her first poems in the magazine ''Hora de España'' in 1937 with the help of poet José María Quiroga Pla. She returned to Madrid after the end of the war and in the early 1940s worked as a teacher, translator, and seamstress. She taught Spanish and Spanish literature at the school Atenea de Madrid. Zardoya continued writing, and in 1944 published her first book, ''Cuentos del antiguo Nilo'' (''Tales of the Ancient Nile''), using the pseudonym Concha de Salamanca. She also wrote screenplays, prologues for classic literature, and a series for youth. In 1945, she travelled to the United States to speak and translated the works of Walt Whitman. In 1946 she published ''Pájaros del Nuevo Mundo'', her first poetry collection. In 1947, she published ''Dominio del llanto''. She wrote a screenplay about Francisco Goya and published compilations of Hispanic stories and legends. In addition to the works of Whitman, Zardoya translated the writings of Charles Langbridge Morgan. Zardoya returned to school as a free student and earned a degree in modern philology in 1947. Her 1947 poetry collection ''Dominios del llanto'' was runner-up for the

Premio Adonáis de Poesía The Premio Adonáis, or Adonais Prize for Poetry, is awarded annually in Spain by Ediciones RIALP to an unpublished Spanish language poem. Runners-up are also recognized. Named after the collection of the same name, the Adonais Prize was created i ...

Teaching in the United States

Zardoya moved to the United States in 1948 and taught

at the

. She also received a doctorate from the

; her dissertation was on the Spanish image in American poetry. She went on to teach at Tulane University in 1951, and later at multiple North American universities, including

, Indiana University Bloomington and University of California, Berkeley. She was awarded a First Honorable Mention at the Premio Catá de Cuentos in Havana in 1949. Zardoya was friends with poet

and wrote a biography of him titled ''Miguel Hernández. Vida y obra. Bibliografía. Antología'' in 1955. That same year she won the Boscán Poetry Prize for her poetry collection ''Debajo de la luz''. During her career, Zardoya published nearly 40 poetry collections. She dedicated herself to essay writing from 1966 to 1974, focusing on Spanish and American literature. She wrote up Spanish-language survey of

American literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...

as well as surveys of modern

Spanish poetry This article concerns poetry in Spain. Medieval Spain The Medieval period covers 400 years of different poetry texts and can be broken up into five categories. Primitive lyrics Since the findings of the Kharjas, which are mainly two, three, o ...

. She regularly wrote for cultural magazines and published books on contemporary

and the history of North American literature.

Retirement and later life

Zardoya retired in 1977 and returned to Spain where she continued to write poetry. In 1980, Zardoya chaired the Association of Friends of Miguel Hernández and won the Café Marfil Poetry Prize with her book ''Ritos, cifras y evasiones''. Zardoya's poetry was thematically diverse, sometimes reflecting on social and ethical behaviors. Her poetry collections sometimes revolved around small objects such as a fan. Her poetry collection ''Los ríos caudales'' was a tribute to the Generation of '27. She also wrote children's literature such as ''En la isla de Pascua'' (1985), ''Cuentos sin edad'' (1989), and ''Caramurú y la anaconda'' (1992). Her final poetry collection, ''Ronda del arco iris'', included 33 short compositions dedicated to children and was published in 2004. Zardoya died of heart failure on 21 April 2004 at her home in Majadahonda, Spain. A public library in Majadahonda is named for her.

Awards

*Premio Boscán de Poesía for ''Debajo de la luz'' (1955) *Premio Fémina de Poesía for ''El corazón y la sombra'' (1975) *Premio Café Marfil de Poesía for ''Ritos, cifras, y evasiones'' (1980) *Premio Ópera Óptima for ''Manhattan y otras latitudes'' (1983) *Premio Prometeo de Poesía for ''Altamor'' (1988)

Selected works

*''Pájaros del Nuevo Mundo'' (1946) *''Dominios del llanto'' (1947) *''Los signos'' (1954) *''El desterrado ensueño'' (1955) *''Miguel Hernández. Vida y obra. Bibliografía. Antología'' (1955) *''El desterrado ensueño'' (1955) *''Mirar al cielo es tu condena'' (1957) *''La casa deshabitada'' (1959) *''Elegías'' (1961) *''Corral de vivos y muertos'' (1965) *''Hondo sur'' (1968) *''Poesía española del siglo XX'' (1974) *''El corazón y la sombra'' (1977) *''Manhattan y otras latitudes'' (1983) *''Retorno a Magerit'' (1983) *''En la isla de Pascua'' (1985) *''Ritos, cifras, y evasiones'' (1985) *''No llega a ser ceniza lo que arde'' (1985) *''Altamor'' (1986) *''Retorno a Magerit'' (1986) *''Cuentos sin edad'' (1989) *''Patrimonio de ciegos'' (1992) *''Caramurú y la anaconda'' (1992) *''El don de la simiente'' (1993) *''Sintonimias del adiós'' (2002) *''Alrededores míos'' (2003) *''Ronda del arco iris'' (2004)