Víctor Obiols (Barcelona, 1960) is a poet, musician and translator.

With a degree in Classical Philology from the University of Barcelona (1985) and a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Southampton (1994) he embarked on his career as a poet at a very early age when he published the book Opus Zero (1974) when he was only fourteen. In 1982 he received the Miquel de Palol Prize for Poetry in the Girona Literary Awards for his Carrer d’hivern (1983). He is also author of the collections Versos i contracants (1997 – winner of the 1996 Màrius Torres Prize), El croc de l’esfera (1999), Nòtules de misericòrdia per les criatures del goig (2009), D’un juny dur (2014) and Dret al miracle (2015 – winner of the 2015 Carles Riba Prize for Poetry). The volume Sol de Lluna ple (2015) compiles Obiols’ work which was published between 1974 and 1999. A lecturer since 2003 in the Master’s Degree in Literary Translation at the Institute for Continuing Education at the Pompeu Fabra University, he has translated titles including J. L. Carr’s A Month in the Country (Un mes al camp, 1990), Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost (El fantasma de Canterville, 1998), William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew (La doma de la fiera, 2000), Ravi Shankar’s My Music, My Life (Mi música, mi vida, 2009), Mircea Eliade’s The Myth of the Eternal Return (El mite de l’etern retorn, 2014), and Max Porter’s Grief Is the Thing with Feathers (El dol és aquella cosa amb ales, 2016).

Using the pseudonym Víctor Bocanegra, he has forged an equally significant career in music. With Pepe Sales he formed the group Bocanegra and recorded the record Bocanegra U (1986). His work Bloc de lírica dura (2005) is his tribute to Sales who died in 1994. He has also produced the recordings Fonografies (2009), Villon. Les balades (2011), Cançons de l’Akídelara (2013), Sacrilegis (2017), and others.

Víctor Obiols is a member of the editorial board of the poetry magazine Reduccions and writes for the media publications La Vanguardia, Diari de Barcelona, El Periódico, Caràcters and Ara. He was director of the International Poetry Festival of Barcelona (2004-2009) and, since 2015, he has been teaching Poetry Techniques at the Barcelona Athenaeum School of Writing.

Víctor Obiols is a member of Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (Association of Catalan Language Writers –AELC).



Web page: Toni Terrades for AELC.
Photograph: © Víctor Obiols.
Translated by Julie Wark.