Luis García Montero

Luis García Montero was born in Granada in 1958 and belongs amongst the most successful contemporary Spanish poets. He completed his studies in Spanish literature at Granada University in 1981 and five years later he presented his doctoral thesis on the Spanish modernist Rafael Alberti.  Today he has the Chair for contemporary Spanish literature at the university in his home town and lives in Madrid.

Montero’s writing career began in 1980 with the poetry collection ‘Y ahora ya eres dueño del Puente de Brooklyn’, for which he received the ‘Federico García Lorca Prize’ of his university. His book which came out a year later, ‘El Jardín extranjero’, was also awarded the ‘Premio Adonais de Poesía’. The volume ‘Habitaciones seperadas’ which came out in 1994 was awarded both the ‘Premio Nacional de Poesía’ and the ‘Premio Fundación Loewe’.

In 1986, Luis Antonio de Villena took the poet into his anthology ‘Postnovísimos’ which played on the pioneering collection ‘Nueve novísimos poetas españoles’, which had appeared 15 years earlier. In Spain, the literary culture is, especially in the twentieth century, influenced through clearly marked changes of generations.

Montero is today perceived as one of the most modern writers who has left the literature of the seventies behind him. With ‘Completamente Viernes’ the writer presented in 1998 a collection of love poems which he dedicated to his wife, the well-known novel author Almudena Grandes.  The ethic of happiness which he here picks out as a central theme, isn’t understood by him as simply a private matter but as a ‘way of writing and being in the world’.

Luis García Montero is not only known for his literary works, but also for his many academic publications. Alongside a small history of Spanish poetry in individual portraits, ‘El sexto día’ he produced, in 2001, with ‘Gigante y Extraño. Las Rimas de Gustavo Adolfo Becquér’, a detailed commented new edition of the work of this Spanish late romantic.

In 2002, Montero’s poems of twenty years were published in the annotated collection “Antología poética”. For his volume of poetry “La intimidad de la serpiente” (2003: t: The intimacy of the snake) the author was awarded the Gold Medal of the city of Granada.

© international literature festival berlin

Y ahora ye eres dueño del Puente de Brooklyn
Universidad de Granada
Granada, 1980

Habitaciones seperadas
Visor
Madrid, 1994

Completamente Viernes
Tusquets
Barcelona, 1998

Gigante y Extraño
Tusquets
Barcelona, 2001

Antología poética
Castalia, D.L.
Madrid, 2002

Almanaque de fabulador
Tusquets
Barcelona, 2003

La casa del jacobino
Hiperión
Madrid, 2003

La imtimidad de la serpiente
Tusquets
Barcelona, 2003

Poemas
Visor Libros
Madrid, 2004

Übersetzerin: Christina Campo