Chus Pato’s works have been widely translated and published abroad, including in Argentina, Chile, Portugal, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Russia, France, and Belgium. One cannot help but notice no English-language countries make the list.

Galician poet María Jesús Pato Díaz, known as Chus Pato, has been awarded the 2024 Spanish National Poetry Prize for her work Sonora (Xerais, 2023). The prize, conferred by the Spanish Ministry of Culture, carries a monetary award of 30,000 euro ($33,500).

Per a report in PublishNewsES (https://publishnews.es/chus-pato-premio-nacional-de-poesia-de-espana-2024/), the jury praised Sonora as “an experimental work, an expansive and concentrated dialogue between the poem and death. A pivotal figure in Galician poetry, Chus Pato innovatively deconstructs and reconstructs traditional poetic frameworks.”

The collection was also noted for its “textual spaces filled with rhetorical and semantic escapes, capable of hybridising various codes, showcasing its inexhaustible sonic power. In Sonora, personal, social, and political memories whisper through the multiple voices of one of the most daring contemporary poets. Chus Pato demonstrates poetry’s transformative power over language.”

This accolade follows the recognition of Yolanda Castaño in the previous edition, joining a distinguished list of past winners including Miren Agur Meabe, Aurora Luque, Olga Novo, Pilar Pallarés, and Antònia Vicens.

Chus Pato’s Galician-language body of work has earned numerous accolades, including the National Prize of Spanish Critics in the Galician poetry category, and they have been widely translated and published abroad, including in Argentina, Chile, Portugal, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Russia, France, and Belgium.

One cannot help but notice no English-language countries make the list.

Per PublishNewsEs, which has a lot more background on the poet, Sonora is being translated into Spanish by Gonzalo Hermo for Ultramarinos’ Poesía reunida series.

This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsfeed.