The César Manrique Foundation (FCM) will host on Thursday, May 7, at 7:30 p.m., the conference titled A New Paganism, which will be given by Luis Antonio de Villena, one of the most prolific poets, narrators, and essayists in contemporary Spanish literature. The event will take place in the Sala José Saramago (La Plazuela, Arrecife) and will also be broadcast live via the FCM's website and YouTube channel.
During his presentation, De Villena —National Critics' Prize in the poetry category (1981) for Huir del invierno and Azorín Novel Prize (1995) for his work El burdel de Lord Byron— will convey his personal aspiration for a new paganism that, in a broad sense, serves as a counterpoint to established dogmas. He will do so accompanied by a poetic reading in which he will also evoke César Manrique from the beginning.
Luis Antonio de Villena's conference is part of the meeting space between creators and the public titled The Author and His Work. It is a multidisciplinary forum in which invited authors talk about the relationship they have with their creative work and review some of the constants that guide their dedication. This forum has featured, among others: José Ángel Valente, Rosa Montero, Alberto Corazón, Juan Gelman, Susan Sontag, Juan Goytisolo, Carmen Martín Gaite, Eduardo Galeano, Iñaki Ábalos, Ángeles Mastretta, Günter Grass, José Saramago, Eduardo Mendoza, Bernardo Atxaga, or, recently, Sergio Ramírez.
Luis Antonio de Villena is a writer, literary critic, and translator in the Spanish language. He published his first book of poems —Sublime Solarium— at the age of nineteen. Among the numerous titles that followed, notable ones include: Huir del Invierno, La muerte únicamente, Marginados, Los gatos príncipes, La prosa del mundo, La Belleza impura, El burdel de Lord Byron, and, recently, Miserable vejez and Diamantes, mística y cilicios. In addition to poetry and narrative, Villena has written essays, studies, and biographies.
His creative work —in verse or prose— has been translated, individually or in anthologies, into various languages, including German, Japanese, Italian, French, English, Portuguese, and Hungarian. In addition to the Critics' Prize and the Azorín Prize, De Villena has also received the International City of Melilla Poetry Prize (1997), the Sonrisa Vertical Prize for erotic narrative (1999), the Generation of '27 International Poetry Prize (2004), and the II International Poetry Prize “Viaje del Parnaso” (2007).
He has written and continues to write opinion and literary criticism articles in various Spanish newspapers since 1973. He has collaborated on numerous television and radio programs, and currently collaborates with El Mundo and Radio Nacional de España. He has done various translations, anthologies of young poetry, and critical editions. He has directed humanities courses at summer universities and has been an invited professor and lecturer at various national and foreign universities. He is a Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Lille (France).
