Joan Margarit

Joan Margarit i Consarnau (11 May 1938 – 16 February 2021) was a Catalan

poet, architect and professor.

Most of his work is written in the Catalan language.

In 1954, they settled in the Canary Islands, but in 1956 Margarit returned to Barcelona to complete his architecture studies, lodging at the University hall of residence the Col·legi Major Sant Jordi.

A year after he finished his studies, he met Mariona Ribalta and they married a year later (1963).

They had three daughters (Mònica, Anna and Joana) and a son (Carles).

Margarit started publishing poetry in Spanish in 1963.

After a ten-year break, he published Crónica with help from his friend Joaquim Marco, director of the Ocnos series at the publishing house Barral Editores.

In addition, from 1968 until recently, he was Professor of Structural Calculations at Technical School of Architecture, Barcelona, part of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

From 1975, Margarit lived in Sant Just Desvern and from 1980, worked there as an architect with his friend and associate Carle Buxadé.

From 1980 onwards, he began to establish himself as a poet in the Catalan language.

His works have been translated into English, Russian and Hebrew.

Recitations of Margarit's poems with musical backdrops have been recorded by the musicians Pere Rovira, Gerard Quintana, Araceli Aiguaviva and Miquel Poveda.

In October 2008, Margarit received the Premio Nacional de Poesía for his Casa de Misericordia.

He died aged 82 on 16 February 2021 in Sant Just Desvern after suffering from cancer.

He won the 2019 Miguel de Cervantes Prize.

Born in Sanaüja to Joan Margarit i Serradell, an architect from Barcelona, and Trinitat Consarnau i Sabaté, a teacher at l'Ametlla de Mar (Tarragona), he grew up at the time of the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War.

His family moved to various locations in Catalonia.