Olvido García-Valdés

Olvido García-Valdés was born in Santianes de Pravia, Asturia, in 1950. She gained a degree in Romance Studies and Philosophy. After working as a teacher, she headed the Instituto Cervantes in Toulouse and was head of a ministerial department in the government of Pedro Sánchez, responsible for the book industry and promotion of reading. She now lives in Toledo. In 2007, she received the National Prize for Poetry for her poetry collection “Y todos estábamos vivos” (Tusquets, 2006). Collected editions of her poems have appeared in 2008 and 2016 under the title “Esa polilla que delante de mí revolotea. Poesía reunida (1982–2008)“ (Galaxia Gutenberg). Her collections have been translated into French, English, Italian, Polish and Swedish, with individual poems also being translated into German, Portuguese, Romanian, Greek, Serbian, Arabic and Chinese. She is also the author of a monograph on Therese von Ávila, “Teresa de Jesús”, and various essays on the artistic work of Zush, Anselm Kiefer, Vicente Rojo, Antoni Tàpies, Juan Soriano, the Venice Binennial, etc. and various essays on contemporary literature. She has translated two books by Pier Paolo Pasolini and an anthology with poems by Anna Achmatova uand Marina Tsvetaeva into Castilian Spanish, as well as a book if poems by the French poet Bernard Noël. She ran the literary journal Los Infolios and was a co-founder of the journal El signo del gorrión (1992–2002). She runs and co-ordinates courses, seminars and event cycles on contemporary poetry.

Publications:
dentro del animal la voz. Antología 1982–2012. Editorial Cátedra, 2020.
confía en la gracia. Tusquets, 2020.
Lo solo del animal. Tusquets, 2012.
Esa polilla que delante de mí revolotea. Poesía reunida (1982–2008). Galaxia Gutenberg, 2008 and 2016.
Y todos estábamos vivos. Tusquets, 2006.

Awards (selection):
2007: Spanish National Prize for Poetry for “Y todos estábamos vivos”