Júlia Febrer Bausà: "Poetry is the opportunity to use words in another way"

Saint JohnBorn in Sant Joan in 1998, Júlia Febrer Bausà is part of this new generation of voices that approach poetry with their own perspective, made of word, image, and matter. Her name has begun to resonate strongly within the literary landscape after winning the Ciutat de Manacor de Poesia Miquel Àngel Riera 2025 prize with Arrel inoïda, a work that confirms the solidity of an author still young, but with an already well-defined poetic universe. This recognition has been joined this year by the Martí Dot de Poesia prize, organized by the Sant Feliu de Llobregat City Council, for the poetry collection Llum de cendra, which will be published in the autumn.

When did you discover that poetry was a form of expression for you?Today, Júlia Febrer lives between Mallorca and Barcelona, between the archive and the classroom, between Casa Blai Bonet, her work with Damià Huguet's photographic collection, and university teaching in the field of literature and cinema. A trajectory marked by the dialogue between word and image, between root and displacement, which invites us to converse with a poet who writes from a very intimate place, but also from a perspective open to the world.

When did you discover that poetry was a form of expression for you?

— At IES Mossèn Alcover in Manacor I had a Catalan teacher who introduced us to Catalan literature and it really caught my attention. An assignment consisted of writing a poem about a season of the year, and that already interested me a lot. With a friend, we used to go to the Manacor library to read poetry and I started to discover poetesses and also younger authors. I found a form of expression with which I felt comfortable and identified. From then on, I always carried a notebook where I would write. It was something very intimate. During my degree, I already saw that poetic language was where I felt most comfortable. And when I made sculptures, I linked everything to books I had liked. Quotes from poets inspired me to create a more manual work. Last year, at the Escola de Mallorquí, they had posted the Manacor awards, and that's when I gathered everything I had done.

Where does the title Arrel inoïda come from?

— I really like discovering words. At home, with my mother and my sister, we like to cut out words from newspapers. One day, my mother gave me the word 'inoït' and it caught my attention a lot, because I like to reflect on silence. 'Inoït' means that it is something that is there, but that we do not hear. This idea of the small things that surround us, but that we do not listen to, seemed very inspiring to me, especially in a society like today's, marked by noise. This is the idea that the book follows.

What inspires you to write poetry?

— There are a few parallels. For example, the first would be the parallelism between skin and paper, and then between writing and landscape. There is also the reflection on language. I worked with older women. We focus a lot on how children learn to read, but to what extent do we take care of when an older person loses language? It also inspires me to look at the landscape, what surrounds me and the way we talk.

What is your creative process?

— What is the last image that has inspired you?

What is the last image that has inspired you?

— Who are the authors who have marked you?

Who are the authors who have marked you?

— There are two lines. On the one hand, Catalan literature writers, such as Antònia Vicens, Mireia Calafell and Laia Malo. But, on the other hand, artists who write and do other things also inspire me, such as Fina Miralles and Giuseppe Penone. They create artistic installations and write at the same time.

How would you describe your poetry?

— It is quite purified. I don't write very long verses. A single repeated word is more poignant than a whole page written. My poetry is free verse. They are short verses, but I seek the sonority of the words. It is not a loaded poetry.

What moment is poetry experiencing?

— What importance does Júlia Febrer give to poetry?

What importance does Júlia Febrer give to poetry?

— Poetry gives me the opportunity to approach things in a different way. It is the other side of language. Poetry is the opportunity to use words in a different way.

What has being within Damià Huguet's archive brought you?

— It has helped me to give importance to a Mallorca that I have not known firsthand, and that has inspired me a lot. It is seeing all the layers that photographs have.

What do you want to convey to the people who read your poetry?

— How would you summarize your poetry in one word?

How would you summarize your poetry in one word?

— One word would be 'porous'. I like to think it's open, that the reader has room in it.

In autumn the second poetry collection, Ash Light, will be released. What can you tell us about it?

— When I finished Arrel inoïda, I saw that I had many poems. When you look at the authors you like the most, you also look at the awards they have won. There was a group of young poets who had won the Martí Dot and I tried. And I won it. I like astronomy a lot and Llum de cendra starts from an atmospheric phenomenon, which is the ash light, when the moon is very thin. Llum de cendra talks about the idea that you don't need to only look at things that are very illuminated: if we have attentive eyes, there are other things that can be seen. I like to think that the past and the present are not closed things. The past resonates perfectly in the present.

What do you feel when you write poetry?

— It is very different when I have to read it than when I have to write it, because for me writing is a very intimate process. The fact of publishing the poetry book has made me let it go and let people do what they want with the poems. It has been beautiful for people to read my poems. But when I say them out loud, people tell me that it is very different to read me than to hear me. I have really enjoyed reciting.