Josep Colet i Giralt (Barcelona, 1935-2021), a poet and teacher of writers, and student and disciple of the Súria poet Salvador Perarnau i Canal, studied Law at the University of Barcelona but only worked as a lawyer for a couple of years. Instead, he taught Catalan and in the area of Poetic Imperative. He founded the Barcelona literary group Poesia Viva, which met periodically under his leadership and guidance. As an eminent cultural activist, he founded other groups that were notable for their tireless defence of Catalan language and culture. 

After publishing his first book, Poesies i sonets cruels. Primera part (1972), in which he gave close attention to the sonnet as a strophic form, he moved into the domain of experimental poetry in general, with such examples as El món de les tercines (1988) and i experiència: poesia (2008).

He was also interested in the essay and philosophy along the lines of texts published by Lluís-Maria Xirinacs on whose work he based his Globàlium poètic evolutiu (2009), a book of essays and poems on globalist philosophy.

He died on 15 September 2021 and left the unpublished work Testament poetic, consisting of more than 200 poems. 

He was an honorary member of the Associació d’Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (AELC – Association of Catalan Language Writers).
 

Web page: Francesc Viñas for AELC.
Photographs: AELC (Lletres i Memòria).
Translation: Julie Wark.