Pau Vadell Vallbona (Calonge, Santanyí, Mallorca, 28 October 1984) is a historian, writer, poet, reciter, translator, editor, activist, and cultural manager. From a very early age, he stood out at school and locally for his literary and creative passion. He has a degree in History and a master’s degree in Catalan Literature from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. In his student years notable contributions he made, apart from the collections of poetry he regularly published, were the founding of the magazine Pèl Capell, and his participation in the Pedra Foguera project (an anthology of young poets from the Catalan-speaking lands who take their poetry around Catalonia and abroad).

Throughout his career as a poet he has received many awards, among them the Bernat Vidal i Tomàs Prize, the Josep Maria López Picó Prize for Poetry, and the Senyoriu d’Ausiàs March Award. In 2017 he won the literary competition “Jocs Florals de Barcelona” with the collection of poems titled Esquenes vinclades.

In the professional domain Vadell has been an active member of the Catalan PEN Club and the Association of Catalan Language Writers (AELC), for which he was the Balearic Islands vice-president. He also promotes and is director of the Blai Bonet House – Poetry Centre of Santanyí, and is founder and coordinator of the publishing house AdiA Edicions.

He has published numerous collections, anthologies, and translations of poetry. His poems, stark and bare, vehement and incisive, have evolved from refined, hermetic forms to poems expressing broad social and concerns and demands, without ever renouncing his origins or humour. His main influences include Blai Bonet, Antoni Vidal Ferrando, and Francesc Garriga, although his work offers glimpses of insights from many other poets who write in Catalan.

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

Web page: Elena Ferrer Moregó.
Documentation: Author’s personal files.
Cover photograph: Tolo Balaguer, photographer.
Translation: Julie Wark.