Maria Ibars i Ibars (València, 1892-1965) was a teacher who, in the literary field, was also outstanding for her writings as a poet, novelist and short story writer.

After studying in the Valencia Teacher Training College, she taught in the town of Font de la Figuera and in the city of Valencia, where she contributed towards renovating the educational system. True to the project of her friend Carles Salvador in promoting the Valencian language and culture, she started writing poems in Catalan for newspapers and magazines such as Las Provincias, Pensat i Fet, Sicània and La Marina. Her first collection of poems appeared in 1949 with the title Poemes de Penyamar. These are essentially hymns to the landscape, characterised by a certain sentimental tone which also appears in her short stories. The idealised rural world of the novel Vides planes (1962) is maintained in L'últim serf, although the latter work also incorporates elements akin to those of social realism. Between 1961 and 1967, a series of her stories were published in the Nostres Faulelles collection.

In 1992, on the centenary of her birth, her unpublished play about a traditional religious motif, Els miracles de Teulada, was published.

In 2015, on the fiftieth anniversary of her death, several "Maria Ibars Literary Routes" were inaugurated.



Web page: Francesc Viñas for AELC.
Translated by Julie Wark.