Antoni Vidal Ferrando (Santanyí, 1945), a poet and fiction writer, is a teacher by profession. His poetic work, drawing on his islander identity to construct a discourse on the contemporary human being, has received awards including the 1985 Ausiàs March Prize, the 1985 and 1995 City of Palma Prize, the 1993 Cavall Verd - Josep Ma. Llompart Critics’ Prize), the 1994 Flor Natural Prize in the Jocs Florals Literary Competition of Barcelona (1994), and the 2021 Carles Riba Prize for Poetry.

Notable among these prize-winning works are El brell dels jorns (1986), Racó de n’Aulet (1986), A l'alba lila dels alocs (1988), Els colors i el zodiac (1990), Cartes a Lady Hamilton (1990), Calvari (1992), and Si entra boira no tendré on anar (2022). In 2008, his complete poetic works were published in the volume Allà on crema l’herba: Obra poètica (1986-2007).

In his fictional work, mention must be made of his trilogy on twentieth-century Mallora, which begins with Les llunes i els calàpets (1994) and is completed with La mà del jardiner (1999), winner of the Sant Joan Prize for the Novel, and L’illa dels dolmens (2007), winner of the Serra d’Or Critics’ Prize. Another notable work is his diary Amors i laberints (2010).

He also worked for some time in the field of history, fruit of which were several essays, the most important being La població i propietat de la terra en el municipi de Santanyí (1868-1920).

His career has been recognised with the 2013 Estrella Mostrejada Prize, the 2018 Gold Medal of the Santanyi Council, and the Twenty-Third Jaume Fuster Prize of the Catalan Language Writers (2023).

He is an honorary member of the Associació d’Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (AELC – Association of Catalan Language Writers).

Web page: Xulio Ricardo Trigo for AELC.
Update: Carme Ros.
Photographs: Author’s personal files.
Translation: Julie Wark.