Victòria Penya i Nicolau (Palma, 1827- Barcelona, 1898) was a poet of the Catalan Renaixença (Renaissance).

Born into a book-loving family, she was familiar with literature from an early age. After turning seventeen, she began to publish poetry in Spanish. However, in 1859, she was awarded an Honourable Mention in the Jocs Florals literary competition of Barcelona, which encouraged her to adopt Catalan as the language in which she mainly wrote her poetry.

In 1860, she married her fellow poet Miquel Victorià Amer, whereupon they came to live in Barcelona. Penya, who kept writing for the press in Mallorca, became active in the literary milieu of Barcelona, presenting for literary awards and publishing in the Catalan press and magazines of the day. She received several awards in the Jocs Florals of Barcelona and other competitions, among them the Mariana Bibliographic Academy of Lleida Prize.

Penya’s poetry combines the expression of conservative Christian ideology and values traditionally associated with women (family, tenderness, nostalgia, and piety) and the gaze of personal experiences. The spontaneity of her poetry, which incorporates elements of traditional oral literature, has often been praised. The two volumes of Poesies (1909) bring together a significant part of her poetic work, although many of her poems remain dispersed.

She died in Barcelona in 1898, at the age of seventy-one.

Web page: Llucia Serra for AELC.
Cover portrait: The magazine La Llumanera de Nova York, May 1879.
Translated by Julie Wark.