‘Here is my trade. I have a job, from now on, for you. Insist, brutal me…
‘Here is my trade. I have a job, from now on, for you. Insist, brutally, from now on, in joy.’ #TaldiaComAvui 100 years ago Vicent Andrés Estellés was born, considered the main renovator of Valencian poetry and one of the most important poets of the 20th century in Catalan literature. Few poets have had a social and civic impact like Vicent Andrés Estellés with his verses. Chronicler of the darkest times of the long post-war period and the Franco regime, and later, of the most difficult moments of linguistic and cultural persecution in the Valencian Country, with his work he built an unmistakable voice and modulated it with a unique style that, for decades , has been identified as the collective voice of a town. Joan Fuster defined him as a “poet of realities”; and from the experience of this look at a specific place and time, Estellés never stopped claiming, above all, the right to joy. Born in Burjassot in 1924, Vicent Andrés Estellés got his start in literature during the Civil War. After several jobs, he settled in Madrid to study journalism, but returned to Valencia in 1948. In the early fifties, influenced by Manuel Sanchis Guarner and Francesc de Borja Moll, he began to write in Catalan. His work deals with themes such as love, censorship and identity, always with great lyrical intensity. He also cultivated other genres. He died in 1993. Among his extensive production are: ‘Coral romput’ (finished in 1957). The Lover of All Life (1965). ‘The clement inventory’ (1971), awarded with the Ausiàs March de Gandia Award, ‘First audition’, ‘The key that opens all the locks’ (awarded with the Valencia Award from the Provincial Council in 1958) or ‘ Book of wonders’ (written between 1956 and 1958). ‘The job of tomorrow’ (1972), ‘Hamburg’ (1974), ‘Antibes’ (1976) or ‘The crow’ (1978). #AnyEstellés Institució Lletres Catalanes Cultura. Government of Catalonia
