Damià Pons i Pons (Campanet, Mallorca, 1950) is a poet and essayist and he is engaged in cultural activities in general. He studied Romance Philology at the University of Barcelona and obtained a doctorate in Catalan Philology in 1997, after which he returned to Mallorca where he is presently intensively engaged in researching the literature and history of the Balearic Islands. He worked with others in creating the reviews Latitud 39º and Lluc, and was director of the latter between 1972 and 1973, and is its director once again today.

His literary publications began with his appearance in a jointly-authored book Temptant l’equilibri (Tempting Equilibrium – 1973) and the collection of poems Teranyina (Spider Web), which was followed by Mapa del desig (Map of Desire – 1977) and, in 2001, Els mapes del desig (Maps of Desire), which compiles all his poetry written until then, both published and unpublished.

As an essayist and researcher, Pons has engaged in literary and art criticism and was one of the theoretical references of Majorcan artistic movements in the 1970s. In this genre he has published the books Ideologia i cultura a la Mallorca d’entre els dos segles (1886-1905) (Ideology and Culture in Mallorca Between Two centuries (1886 – 1905) – 1998) and El diari “La Almudaina” en l’època de Miquel dels Sants Oliver (The Newspaper “La Almudaina” in the Times of Miquel dels Sants Oliver – 1998).

Damià Pons has also published articles in a range of reviews, for example Randa, Estudis baleàrics and Lluc. He teaches Catalan Philology at the Balearic Islands University and is a member of the Association of Catalan-Language Writers and of the Balearic Islands cultural entity Obra Cultural Balear.



Web page: Xulio Ricardo Trigo.
Translation: Julie Wark.
Photograph: AELC archive.