Juan Carlos Mestre

Poet and visual artist Juan Carlos Mestre was born in Villafranca del Bierzo, in León, Spain, under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. He studied at the University of Barcelona. Mestre’s poems use dream and memory to explore the conditions of exile and the everyday. He is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including Un poema no es una misa cantada (2013), La Casa Roja (2008), which won the National Poetry Prize awarded by Spain’s Ministry of Culture; La Tumba de Keats (1999), which won the Jaen de Poesia Prize; La Poesía ha Caído en Desgracia (1992), which won the Jaime Gil de Biedma Award; and Antífona del Otoño en el Valle del Bierzo (1986), which won the Adonais Poetry Prize. His work is featured in the anthology New Poetry from Spain (2012).