Laia Martinez i Lopez (Berga, 1984) is a poet, musician, and translator. A graduate of English and Russian Translation and Interpretation from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2007), she works as a translator and writes literature. After making contact with other writers of the Horiginal group of Barcelona, she set out on a prolific career as a poet and rhapsodist. She has published the collections of poetry L’abc de Laia Martinez i Lopez (2009), L’estiu del tonight, tonight (2011, Balearic Islands Young Art Prize, 2010), Cançó amb esgarrip i dos poems (2014), Afollada (2016), Venus volta (2018), and Versets i cigarrets (2021).

In 2009 she moved to Mallorca, where (with Jaume Reus) she has created the Jansky electronic and poetry group, winner of the 2018 Europe SUNS award for Best European Minority Language Group, which performs around Europe and at prestigious international festivals on other continents. In 2020, it received the “Best Studio Sound” prize in the Sound of The Year Awards 2020 (BBC / Museum of Sound).

Laia Martinez works with her poetic voice in several disciplines from street gigs to shows around the world. She writes for the weekly Ara Balears and the magazine S’Altra Música, as well as being head of the “Lectures sonades” section in Els Entusiastes on IB3 Ràdio. She is a member of the Associació d’Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (AELC – Association of Catalan Language Writers) and has been its Balearic Islands spokesperson since 2015. She also coordinates the translation sessions “Camaleons o la màgia de traduir” and the Espai Reverb activities.

 

Web page: Toni Terrades for AELC.
Documentation: Laia Martinez.
Photograph: © Jaume Muntaner
Translated by Julie Wark.