Writer Sebastià Alzamora and translator Jordi Fité win the XLIII Green Horse Awards

PalmThe poetry book Sala Augusta, by Sebastià Alzamora, and the Spanish translation of Complete Poetry, by Elizabeth Bishop, by Jordi Fité Salvans, have won the Cavall Verd Awards in their 43rd edition. Convened by the Association of Writers in the Catalan Language (AELC), the awards will be presented tomorrow, Saturday, March 28, within the framework of a program of events that takes place between Palma and Santanyí.

The Josep M. Llompart Award for the best work in Catalan poetry has recognized the Mallorcan author Sebastià Alzamora, who has won the Josep M. Llompart Award for Sala Augusta (Proa, 2025), a collection that pays homage to the victims of the Francoist uprising of 1936. Sala Augusta is a cinema in Palma built on a plot that had been an old iron factory converted into a prison during the Civil War, where Republican prisoners awaited execution in inhumane conditions. Sala Augusta has been published by Proa along with another long poem by the same author, Llengua materna; together they constitute an expression of collective and personal memory, which also evoke the present in the face of the dangers of populist extremism and the regression of language. Of Sala Augusta, the jury highlighted that “it is a moving and committed poetry collection, an exercise in historical and intimate memory made from discursive poetry with a torrent of verses. It is also formed by two very complementary parts that give it great unity”.Sebastià Alzamora is one of the most prominent writers in Catalan literature. Born in Llucmajor in 1972, he is the author of seven poetry books and twelve novels. He has received a dozen awards, including the Ciutat de Palma in 2002 for Sara i Jeremies, the Josep Pla in 2005 for La pell i la princesa, the Sant Jordi in 2011 for Crim de sang, the Crítica de Serra d’Or in 2019 for La netedat and the d’Òmnium in 2023 for best novel for Ràbia.The Rafel Jaume Award for the best translation of a Catalan poetry book. In the category of translation into Catalan of the Cavall Verd Awards 2026, Poesía completa by Elizabeth Bishop, translated by Jordi Fité Salvans (Ediciones 1984), has been awarded. This is the definitive edition of the work of one of the greatest poets in the English language. A traveler, an adventurer, full of curiosity for all that was unknown to her, Elizabeth Bishop observed and described nature, landscape, geography, and human lives with miniaturist precision.The jury highlighted Jordi Fité’s translation, noting the “relevant and immense task of translating the complete works of an essential 20th-century author, as well as the fact that it is a translation that stands out for its use of very natural Catalan, without any artifice, and with great precision.”Jordi Fité Salvans (Sabadell, 1962) is, in addition to being a translator, an actor and theater director. With a long career in the performing arts, he has directed productions of Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Goldoni, as well as creating commemorative shows around the figures of Salvat - Papasseit, Mozart, Camus, or Shakespeare himself. He has translated theater, poetry, and narrative, by authors such as Shakespeare, Arthur Miller, Michael Frayn, or Edgar Allan Poe.Jury. The jury of the XLIII Cavall Verd Awards was composed of Miquel Bezares, Mireia Calafell, Begonya Pozo, Eduard Sanahuja, and Joan Tomàs Martínez Grimalt, who served as president and secretary.