Blanca Andreu (born 4 August 1959

A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...

) is a Spanish poet.

Life

She grew up in

Orihuela Orihuela (; ''Corpus Toponímic Valencià''. Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua. 2009, València.) is a city and municipality located at the foot of the Sierra de Orihuela mountains in the province of Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain. The c ...

, where her family still resides, and attended El Colegio de Jesus-Maria de San Agustin, followed by studies in

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

Murcia Murcia ( , , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the Ranked lists of Spanish municipalities#By population, seventh largest city i ...

. At age 20, she moved to

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

without formally completing her education. Here, she met

Francisco Umbral Francisco Alejandro Pérez Martínez (11 May 1932 – 28 August 2007), better known as Francisco Umbral, was a Spanish journalist, novelist, biographer and essayist. Style Although he was born in Madrid, a city that has inspired most of his wo ...

, who introduced her to the literati of the city. In 1980, she was awarded 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de Poesía The Premio Adonáis, or Adonais Prize for Poetry, is awarded annually in Spain by Ediciones RIALP to an unpublished Spanish language poem.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 ...

for her work entitled, ''De una niña de provincias que se vino a vivir en un Chagall''. Her use of surrealism is considered the beginning of the Post-Modern Generation. Her later work have tried to shy away from the surrealist tendencies of her early pieces. In 1985 she married novelist Juan Benet. After he died in 1993, she moved to

Alicante Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean port. The population ...

and then to

where she now lives an ordinary life.

Awards

* 1980: Premio Adonáis de Poesía * 1981: Premio de Cuentos Gabriel Miró * 1982: Premio Mundial de Poesía Mística, Fernando Rielo * 1982: Premio Ícaro de Literatura * 2001: Premio Internacional de Poesía Laureà Mela

Works

* ''De una niña de provincias que se vino a vivir en un Chagall'' (1980) * ''Báculo de Babel'' (1982) * ''Capitán Elphistone'' (1988) * ''El sueño oscuro'' (1994) * ''La tierra transparente'' (2002)

Critical studies

"Blanca Andreu: Recovering the Lost Language", Sylvia Sherno, ''Hispania'', Vol. 77, No. 3 (Sep., 1994), pp. 384-393 "Between Water and Fire: Blanca Andreu's Dream Landscapes", Sylvia Sherno, ''Revista Hispánica Moderna'', Año 47, No. 2 (Dec., 1994), pp. 533-542
*

References

External links

Artist's websiteArtist's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andreu, Blanca 1959 births Living people Spanish women poets People from A Coruña 20th-century Spanish poets 20th-century Spanish women writers