Antoni Turull (Barcelona, 1933 - Bristol, United Kingdom, 1990) was a poet, novelist and translator.

Born into a bourgeois family, he studied at the universities of Zaragoza and Barcelona, after which he obtained his doctorate at the Pontificium Athenaeum Angelicum in Rome. Having worked in several positions in Barcelona, he was employed as a lector at the University of Glasgow and, subsequently, as a lecturer in Spanish and Catalan at Bristol University, where he played a key role in the introduction of Catalan Studies as well as promoting a range of related cultural activities.

His poetry, showing his concern for social and traditional themes, has much in common with two poets he greatly admired, Joan Oliver and Nicolás Guillén. His first collection was titled A l'oreig del capvespre (To the Balmy Evening Breeze, 1971), and this was followed by two further volumes, Poesia prima (Light Poetry, 1986) and Bitllet de tornada (Return Ticket, 1990).

In the domain of fiction, he was awarded the 1985 Sant Joan Prize for his novel La torre Bernadot (Bernadot Tower) in which he wrote about his youthful years. He revealed his skills as an essayist with his literary study Pere Quart, poeta del nostre temps (Pere Quart, a Poet for Our Times, 1983), and as a translator with Cançons d'innocència i d'experiència (1975), his Catalan version of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience.

Some of his work remains unpublished.



Web page: Francesc Viñas for AELC.
Documentation and photographs: Author’s family files.
Translated by Julie Wark.