Xavier Amorós (Reus, 1923-2022) is a poet and prose writer. His poetry, which he began writing in 1940, has evolved through different forms to its final stage of historical realism in Guardeu-me la paraula (1960), Qui enganya, para (1968), the latter of which was awarded the Carles Riba Prize in 1964. His poetry starts from Noucentism (a cultural-political movement in Catalonia at the beginning of the twentieth century), then oscillates towards symbolism, finally to remain with historical realism where it concludes at the point where it might become repetitive. He also wrote Història sentimental (1954), a play which received the Santiago Rusiñol Prize in the Catalan Language Jocs Florals (Literary Competition) in Mendoza, Argentina, in 1956.

After a long period of silence, he started to write prose in the mid-1980s. In 1983, he received the Catalan Literature Prize of the Generalitat (Autonomous Government) of Catalonia for poetry, with his anthology Poemes (1959-1964). In 1985 he published a historical novel on an autobiographical basis entitled L'agulla en un paller, which was followed by further memoirs in the form of novel-chronicles: El camí dels morts (1996; 2006), Temps estranys. Clarobscurs en la llarga postguerra reusenca, published in three volumes in 2000, 2002 and 2004; or Plou, però plou poc (2007), among others. At the same time, he published several collections of journalistic pieces, such as Cafè París (1989), Botigues de mar (1993), De Reus estant (1995), Històries de la plaça de Prim (1997) or Tomb de ravals (1998), literary chronicles of everyday life in his town, Reus. In 2004 the Council of Reus begun the publication of his Complete Works, which appeared in four volumes between 2004 and 2011, curated by Rosa Cabré.

He was awarded the Carles Riba poetry prize (1964) for Qui enganya, para, the Catalan Literature prize for poetry by the Catalan Government in 1983 for the anthology Poemes (1959-1964), the Creu de Sant Jordi (2004), and he has been appointed Doctor Honoris Causa by Universitat Rovira i Virgili (2004).

He was an honorary member of Centre de Lectura of Reus, Illustrious Son of the town of Reus and honorary member of Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (AELC, Association of Catalan Language Writers).



Web page: M. Lluïsa Amorós.
Photographs: Author's personal files.
Translation: Julie Wark.