Spanish women poets

“Traveler, your footprints / are the only road, nothing else. / Traveler, there is no road; / you make your own path as you walk.”^[1] Following the path trodden by Antonio Machado more than a century ago (Proverbs and Canticles, 1963), a generation of women are conquering the lyrical scene. Further proof that female voices are increasingly being listened to in the cultural world. With their daring and creative award-winning poetry collections, they are renewing poetry, dealing with feminist-leaning themes, and captivating a growing audience that crowds their readings. Social media has become one of their allies, with even a fan phenomenon sparking around some of them. At Talento a bordo, we want to campaign for the talent of these women who have contributed to renewing interest for an art that is still the best form for expressing feelings and emotions.

Elvira Sastre

The most high-profile poetess on the current scene is Elvira Sastre; proof of this are her more than 600,000 followers on Instagram and her crowded poetry readings. The quality of her poems did not go unnoticed by Joan Margarit, winner of the National Poetry Award and the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, who wrote the prologue for La soledad de un cuerpo acostumbrado a la herida (2016). With her first novel, Días sin ti (2019), she won the prestigious Premio Biblioteca Breve.

Berta García Faet

In 2018, Berta García Faet received the National Young Poetry Award for Los salmos fosforitos, where she pays homage to Peruvian poet César Vallejo. Due to this success, her first four poetry collections were republished: Corazón tradicionalista (2018). In her subsequent works, Una pequeña personalidad linda (2021) and Corazonada (2023), she continued to play with the tropes and inner rhythm of her poems.

Raquel Lanseros

In 2023, Raquel Lanseros won the Premio de Poesía Generación del 27 for her poetry collection El sol y las otras estrellas. Her latest award, after the Premio Antonio Machado for Croniria (2009) or the Premio de la Crítica for Matria (2019), among others, granted to one of the most well-renowned poetesses on the Spanish scene. Committed to reality, her verses tackle social injustices or humans’ relationship with nature.

Yolanda Castaño

Yolanda Castaño’s verses are born in Galician to then be recited around the world. This is how she has become one of the main ambassadors of her language. Singularity, edginess and experimentation, alongside powerful eroticism, are her distinguishing traits. In 2023, she received the National Poetry Award for Materia, a work the jury highlighted for its “extraordinary evocative and sensory strength.”

Elena Medel

Elena Medel received the 2016 Fundación Princesa de Girona Award in the Arts and Humanities category for her poetic works, gathered together in Un día negro en una casa de mentira (2015). As the director of Bella Varsovia, a publishing house she founded in 2004, she has also discovered big names of modern-day Spanish poetry. She took a leap into narrative with Las maravillas (2020), which won the Premio Francisco Umbral al Libro del Año for best book of the year.

Sara Búho

Sara Bueno, better known as Sara Búho, never set aside her great passion: writing. Thanks to the internet and social media, she gathered a crowd of followers and today is one of the most beloved poetesses in the country. Poetry collections like La ataraxia del corazón (2016), La inercia del silencio (2019), Perdón a la lluvia (2022) or her recent Donde descansan las flores (2024) are proof of her indisputable talent.

Ángela Segovia

A big fan of Latin-American poetry, Ángela Segovia received the National Young Poetry Award in 2017 for La curva se volvió barricada. In the words of the jury, “for representing how Spanish poetry is opening towards paths that build bridges with Hispanic American poetry.” In 2024, after Mi paese salvaje (2021) and Jara morta (2023), she closed a poetic cycle with La hora del abejorro.

Ana Merino

Ana Merino’s literary career started big, by receiving one of the most prestigious awards for poetry in Spanish, the Adonáis, for Preparativos para un viaje (1995). Her following poetry collections Los días gemelos (1997), Juegos de niños (2003) or Curación (2010) consolidated her position as a role model. A position that she also conquered in the world of narrative after receiving the 2020 Premio Nadal for El mapa de los afectos.

Luna Miguel

Her mother, an editor. Her father, a professor. Together they launched the publishing house El Gaviero. It was only a matter of time before Luna Miguel started stringing verses together. At the tender age of 20, she published her first poetry collection, Estar enfermo (2010), which turned her into the rising star of new Spanish poetry. Then came La tumba del marinero (2013), El arrecife de las sirenas (2017) or Un amor español (2023), among other titles.

Lola Tórtola

The latest winner of the National Young Poetry Award is Lola Tórtola from Murcia, a doctor specialised in plastic, aesthetic, and reconstructive surgery as well as a poet. She achieved this award with her first poetry collection, Los dioses destruidos, which for the jury “intones a heartbreaking song and reveals the author’s poetic magic.” A debut that places her as one of the big names on the Spanish lyrical poetry scene.

It wouldn’t be fair to end this journey through Spanish poetry written by women without mentioning the names of young Loreto Sesma, María Elena Higueruelo, Rocío Acebal, Alba Flores Robla, Rosa Berbel, Andrea Valbuena, Irene X, Alejandra Martínez de Miguel or Mayte Gómez Molina. All of them, born in the last decade of the 20th century, took over from Teresa Mateo, Irene G Punto, Azahara Alonso, Laura Casielles, Alba Cid or Ana Vidal Egea, born in the 1980s, and from Patricia Benito, Pilar Adón, Julieta Valero, Lara Moreno, Esther Ramón, Ana Gorría, Olga Novo or Miriam Reyes, who did so in the 1970s. Look for their poetry collections and delight in their verses!