Antoni Vidal Ferrando (Santanyí, 1945) works as a teacher and is a poet and fiction writer. His poetic work starts from his Mallorcan identity to construct a discourse on the contemporary human being. He has been awarded the 1985 Ausiàs March Prize, the 1985 and 1995 Ciutat de Palma Prize, the 'Cavall Verd- Josep M. Llompart Critics' Prize (1993) and the 1994 Flor Natural Prize in the Barcelona Jocs Florals literary competition, among others, for his poetry. Notable among his books are Calvari (Calvary, 1992) and El batec de les pedres (The Heartbeat of Stones, 1995), and Cap de cantó (Corner, 2004).

He has published several anthologies of poetry in recent years, among them El jardí de les delícies (The Garden of Delights, 2005), which has appeared in a bilingual Catalan-Spanish edition, and A cops de ferro i àlgebra (By Dint of Iron and Algebra, 2005), edited by D. Sam Abrams. In 2008 his collected poetry was published in one volume with the title Allà on crema l'herba (There Where the Grass is Burning).

As a fiction writer, he is known for his trilogy on twentieth-century Mallorca, which begins with Les llunes i els calàpets (Moons and Toads, 1994) and finishes with La mà del jardiner (The Gardener’s Hand, 1999), winner of the Sant Joan Prize for the Novel, and L'illa dels dòlmens (The Island of Dolmens, 2007), which was awarded the "Serra d'Or" Critics' Prize. Also outstanding is his diary Amors i laberints (Loves and Labyrinths, 2010).

He has been working in the domain of history for some time now, and the most significant of his works in this field is La població i propietat de la terra en el municipi de Santanyí (1868-1920) (Population and Land Ownership in the Municipality of Santanyí (1868 - 1920)).

He is presently living in Santanyí, the land of his dreams, where the poets Blai Bonet and Bernat Vidal i Tomàs were his mentors.

He is a member of the Association of Catalan Language Writers.


Web page: Xulio Ricardo Trigo for AELC.
Update: Carme Ros.
Photographs: Author's personal files.
Translation: Julie Wark.