Poet and literary critic Jaume Pont dies at 79

Jaume Pont, a prominent Catalan poet and literary critic, has passed away at the age of 79. Born in Lleida in 1947, Pont was recognized as one of the most singular voices of his generation.

His distinguished career included professorships at the universities of Barcelona, Poitiers, Naples, Illinois, Mar del Plata, and Littoral-Côte d'Opale, as well as serving as a professor of Modern and Contemporary Spanish Literature at the University of Lleida.

Pont received numerous prestigious honors, including the Vicent Andrés Estellés prize, the Crítica Serra d'Or (twice), the National Criticism Prize, and the Carles Riba in 2006. In 2012, he was awarded the European Virgile Prize for poetry in Paris. Most recently, in 2023, he won the Mallarmé Foreign Translation Prize for his poem collection ‘Mirall de negra nit’, a work dedicated to the memory of his partner that explores themes of loss and absence.

His extensive bibliography includes works such as ‘Límit (s)’, ‘Els vels de l'eclipsi’, ‘Jardí bàrbar’, ‘Divan’, ‘Raó d'atzar’, ‘Vol de Cendres’, ‘Llibre de la Frontera’, ‘Enlloc’, ‘L'altra Llum. Poemes 1976-2011’, and ‘Càntic d'ombres’.