Marta Pessarrodona y Artigues (born November 18, 1941) is a Catalan poet, storyteller and literary critic. She has also written essays and biographies. She is the author of books such as ''Primers dies de 1968'' (1968), ''Setembre 30'' (1969), ''Vida privada'' (1972), ''Memòria'' (1979), ''A favor meu, nostre'' (1981), ''Tria de poemes'' (1994), and ''L'amor a Barcelona'' (1998). In 1997, she received the

Creu de Sant Jordi The Creu de Sant Jordi (, in English 'St George's Cross') is one of the highest civil distinctions awarded in Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, ...

Biography

Marta Pessarrodona y Artigues was born in

Terrassa Terrassa (, es, Tarrasa) is a city in the east central region of Catalonia, Spain, in the province of Barcelona, ''comarca'' of Vallès Occidental, of which it is the co-capital along with Sabadell. The name ''Terrassa'' derives from Latin ' ...

Vallès Occidental Vallès Occidental () is a comarca (county) in Catalonia, Spain. Sabadell and Terrassa are the comarcal capitals. Along with Vallès Oriental it forms the grand comarca of Vallès, and is part of the Barcelona metropolitan area. Physical geogra ...

, November 18, 1941. In 1986, she became a lecturer in Spanish at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...

. She has coordinated the International Commission for the Diffusion of Catalan Culture, in the Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya.In 2010, she was conducting research on the at the

National Archive of Catalonia The National Archive of Catalonia (ANC, ca, Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya, oc, Archiu Nacional de Catalonha, es, Archivo Nacional de Cataluña), is a body created by the Generalitat of Catalonia by decree 28 November 1980. Located in Sant Cugat ...

. Pessarrodona has written several works on

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

and the

Bloomsbury Group The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...

, and has translated,

Susan Sontag Susan Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, philosopher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. Her ...

Doris Lessing Doris May Lessing (; 22 October 1919 – 17 November 2013) was a British-Zimbabwean novelist. She was born to British parents in Iran, where she lived until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she remain ...

Erica Jong Erica Jong (née Mann; born March 26, 1942) is an American novelist, satirist, and poet, known particularly for her 1973 novel ''Fear of Flying''. The book became famously controversial for its attitudes towards female sexuality and figured pro ...

Simone de Beauvoir Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, and even th ...

, and

Marguerite Duras Marguerite Germaine Marie Donnadieu (, 4 April 1914 – 3 March 1996), known as Marguerite Duras (), was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker. Her script for the film ''Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959) ea ...

. Her poetry is realistic, without apparent rhetorical artifice, often sententious and

ironic Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique. Irony can be categorized into ...

; it usually arises from meditation or memory. She regularly writes articles in ''

Avui ''Avui'' (, meaning "Today" in English) was a Catalan daily newspaper, based in Barcelona, in Catalonia. It was one of the city's newest papers, having been founded in 1976. The editorial line was Catalan nationalist. History and profile ''Avui' ...

'' and ''

El Temps ''El Temps'' (; 'The Times') is a weekly newsmagazine, published in Valencia by ''Edicions del País Valencià'' since 1984. It is distributed throughout the whole Països Catalans. It is edited by Eliseu Climent. The publication has offices in ...

''. In 2007, an

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

of her poetic work was published. She writes in

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

Awards and honours

In 1997, she received the Creu de Sant Jordi from the

Generalitat de Catalunya The Generalitat de Catalunya (; oc, label=Aranese, Generalitat de Catalonha; es, Generalidad de Cataluña), or the Government of Catalonia, is the institutional system by which Catalonia politically organizes its self-government. It is formed b ...

. For her works published in 2010, the collection of poems ''Animals i plantas'' and the essays ''Francia: enero 1939. La cultura catalana exiliada'' and ''L’exili violeta'', she was awarded the (2011). In 2019, she received the

Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes The Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes (Catalan Literary Lifetime Achievement Award) is an award instituted by Omnium Cultural since 1969 to recognize a person by their scientific or literary work, written in Catalan language, the importance of ...

, awarded by the association

Òmnium Cultural Òmnium Cultural () is a Catalan association based in Barcelona, Catalonia. It was originally created in the 1960s to promote the Catalan language and spread Catalan culture. Over the years it has increased its involvement in broader political is ...

. A library in Mira-sol neighborhood of

Sant Cugat del Vallès Sant Cugat del Vallès (; es, San Cugat del Vallés, link=no) is a town and municipality north of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Known as ''Castrum Octavianum'' in antiquity (which literally means ''the castle of Octavianus'') and as ''Pins del Val ...

is named in her honor.

Selected works

* Primers dies de 1968 (1968) * Setembre 30 (prologado por Gabriel Ferrater, 1969) * Vida privada (1972) * Memòria (1979) * A favor meu, nostre (1981) * Berlin suite (1985) * Homenatge a Walter Benjamin (1988) * Les senyores-senyores ens els triem calbs (1988) * Nessa: narracions (1988) * Tria de poemes (1994) * L'amor a Barcelona (1998) * Fauna (1994) * Barcelona, una nova ciutat europea (1995) * Montserrat Roig: un retrat * Maria Aurèlia Capmany: un retrat * Frederica Montseny: un retrat * El segle de les dones (2002) * Virginia Woolf in the Midlands (Londres. Anglo-Catalan Society, 2004) * Caterina Albert: un retrat, amb fotografies de Pilar Aymerich (Institut Català de la Dona, 2005) * Mercè Rodoreda i el seu temps (2005) * Donasses. Protagonistes de la Catalunya moderna (2006). * Poemes 1969-2007: Antologia (Editorial Meteora, 2007) * Animals i plantes (Editorial Meteora, 2010) * França 1939. La cultura catalana exiliada (2010). * L'exili violeta (Editorial Meteora, 2010) * A favor nostre. Antologia de poemes i pròleg a cura d'Àngels Gregori (Godall Edicions, 2019)

References

External links

Marta Pessarrodona
at escritoras.com

at mallorcaweb.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Pessarrodona, Marta 1941 births Living people People from Terrassa Storytellers Women storytellers Spanish literary critics Spanish essayists Spanish biographers Spanish women literary critics Spanish women essayists Spanish women biographers 20th-century Spanish women writers 21st-century Spanish women writers Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes winners Catalan-language writers