Almost two decades after the Spanish state paid tribute to the great lady of Canadian letters with the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature, Felipe VI has now formally presented her with the Joan Margarit Prize, created by the Cervantes Institute last September.
Mónica and Pol Lezcano Margarit, daughter and grandson of the Catalan poet and professor of architecture who died in 2021, were tasked with reading poems by both Margaret Atwood and their relative during the ceremony, held at the University of Victoria.
“We would like,” the king said in his speech, “you to receive this prize as a token of gratitude for having taught us how to read better: how to read our times, how to read our societies and how to read ourselves.”
The head of state is wrapping up on Thursday a three-day tour of Canada, accompanied by First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo, with stops in Ottawa and Toronto. Both have taken part in several business forums and have been received, among other politicians, by Labour prime minister Mark Carney.
Atwood, in a speech entitled ‘Poetry in Hard Times’, recalled that in authoritarian regimes poets “have been among the first to be silenced, because they could say what was forbidden, and say it convincingly, and that is threatening to autocrats”.