Maria Antonia Salvà (1869 – 1958) is the foremost modern Catalan poet. She lived the early part of her life in La Llapassa, Llucmajor, with her aunts.
The contact with the Mallorcan Renaissance and her friendship with the family of Miquel Costa i Llobera developed her literary vocation.
She dedicated her life to write, translate and read.
While there she wrote an extensive epistle on the writers and intellectuals of her time.
Her daily contact with nature and rural vocabulary are fundamental in the understanding of her poetry that commenced towards the end of the nineteenth Century under the schooling of Miquel Costa i Llobera.
In the year 1910 her first book of Poetry was published.
In the last years of her life she received homage from the Mallorcan intellectual community, and Josep Carner published “l’Antologia poética”, an important sample and update of her work, finished a few months before the poet’s death in Llucmajor on 29 January 1958.
As has happened with other historical writers, the work of Maria Antonia Salvà has had to overcome the prejudices that have socially placed literature written by women on a secondary level. Today, it is considered a modern classic.
Awards
- Palma d’Or als Jocs Florals de Barcelona (1897).
- Fires i Festes de Palma (1903): Joc de nins.
- Jocs Florals de Palma (1904): Del pla i Primaveral.
- Englantina d’Or als Jocs Florals de Palma (1910): L’ayguera, Casa pagesa i Flaviol de pastor.
- Viola d’Or als Jocs Florals de Badalona (1916).
Poetry
- Poesies. Palma de Mallorca, J. Colomar, 1910.
- Espigues en flor. Barcelona, Altés, 1926.
- El retorn. Barcelona, Lluís Gili, 1934 / Palma de Mallorca, Moll, 1981.
- Llepolies i joguines. Palma de Mallorca, Moll, 1946.
- Cel d’horabaixa. Palma de Mallorca, Moll, 1948.
- Lluneta de pagès. Palma de Mallorca, Moll, 1952.
