As the institution reports, Olds “is a benchmark for North American poetry and uses a nonconformist and authentic typeface,” which is why the jury unanimously decided to award the author the prize.
According to the institute, the verdict underscores the poet’s commitment to truth, which, according to the institute, is particularly relevant in times of the culture of abolition.
“It’s about improving the work of valuable writers at a time when many believe a machine can write the same poetry that tearing humans create,” the company said in a statement.
The Instituto Cervantes also defined the winner’s poems as personal and scathing, describing both family life and world events. Commemorating the Catalan poet Joan Margarit, who gives his name to the award, the institution pointed out that the writer described his fellow award-winning artist as a great calligrapher who had an important level of education in his own poetic craft.
The award belongs to the first edition of a recognition promoted by the Instituto Cervantes, the publishing house La Cama Sol and the family of Margarit (1938-2021), awarded with the prize bearing the name of the author of Don Quixote the Reina Sofía de Poesía , including on atalayar.com.
This high incentive is also given to prominent contemporary authors to recognize their talent as well as the idea of spreading the character of Cervantes internationally, the website states.
Sharon Olds grew up in Berkeley (California, USA), studied at Stanford University and received his doctorate in 1972 from Columbia University.
This author’s first volume of poetry was titled Satan Says, followed by The Dead and the Living, for which she won the National Book Critics Circle Award.
The ceremony will be attended by the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, Joan Margarit’s daughter, Mónica Margarit, and the founder of the publishing house La Cama Sol, Javier Santiso.
The Instituto Cervantes announced that the event ended with the presentation of the prize from the hands of Felipe VI. to writer Sharon Olds, who will conclude the event with a few words of thanks.
The prize, created by the sculptor Cristina Almodóvar, is a book object made with a mixed media – drawing, sculpture and digital printing – which combines art and poetry “beyond the two-dimensional representation”, according to the artist herself.
jcm/dpm