Interview with Madrid writer Santiago Alfonso López Navia, new winner of the 20th Emilio Alarcos Poetry Prize: "Faith and love are the best inspiration for me"

  • By:karen-millen

14

03/2022

My dear popcorn lovers! Interview with Santiago López Navia, Emilio Alarcos Poetry Prize. Stay with his name. The last winner of the XX edition is vice-dean of research at the UNIR Faculty of Education and has won the award with the collection of poems entitled 25-33. The jury has awarded it unanimously "for its original, impressive and exciting content in the evocation of a childhood spent in a neighborhood on the outskirts of southern Madrid."

Interview with Santiago López Navia, Emilio Alarcos Poetry Prize

This year, as reported by Europa Press, 89 collections of poems from various countries were presented, of which 12 works were selected in a first phase. The ruling also values ​​"its simplicity and precision, its naked accuracy", which recreates "moments, facts, atmospheres that save the life of a child and his access to concepts such as kindness and beauty".

In addition, López Navia is the author of thirteen books of poetry and one of stories, among which are Tremendo arcángel (2003); Footprint Shadows (2006); The Sky of Delhi (2007); Daydream and Midday (2011); New Art (2013); Step Impressions (2015); the anthology To live is to be late everywhere (2017), Truce (2020) or Hesperides (Pilgrimages, duels and silences of Jacobo Sadness) (2021).

Born in Madrid in 1961, he has an impressive resume. Among other virtues detected, he has a doctorate in Philology from the Complutense University of Madrid, a doctorate in Educational Sciences with an extraordinary award from the UNED and an honorary doctorate from the SEK University of Santiago de Chile, where he holds the Chair of Humanistic Studies Felipe Segovia Martínez. He is also an advisory member of the Trinity College Group Board of Directors. Fortunately, we were able to talk to him. Come and read.

He has recently won the XX Emilio Alarcos Poetry Prize with the collection of poems entitled 25-33. What has such consideration meant for you?

A great joy, no doubt. It is not easy to obtain a literary prize, and even less one of such category as the Emilio Alarcos, endorsed by an indisputable jury (Luis Alberto de Cuenca, José Luis García Martín, Olvido García Valdés, Aurora Luque, Josefina Martínez and Carlos Marzal) and promoted by an institution as relevant as the Principality of Asturias. Being among the finalists for a poetry award is already an important recognition, taking into account the number of poets who compete and the enormous talent they demonstrate.

25-33 is a collection of poems written from mourning (the loss of my parents in 2018 and 2019), but it is not a collection of mourning poems

What criteria have you followed to configure the aforementioned collection of poems?

Entrevista al escritor madrileño Santiago Alfonso López Navia, nuevo ganador del XX Premio Emilio Alarcos de Poesía: “La fe y el amor son la mejor inspiración para mí”

From the point of view of the feelings that inspire it, 25-33 is a collection of poems written from grief (the loss of my parents in 2018 and 2019), but it is not a poetry collection of grief, but of love and tribute to them: his example, his teachings, his dedication; his indelible legacy, finally. All the poems are written from the look and the memory of the child I was.

The book is temporarily framed in my childhood, and its preferred space is my neighborhood, the Poblado Directido de Orcasitas, in the south of Madrid, where I grew up and where I learned from the hands of my elders, with my parents at the head, the values ​​of respect, effort and honesty. And when I say my neighborhood, I mean my old neighborhood, the one prior to the reconstruction undertaken in the 1980s as a result of its collapse. That is the neighborhood that is still with me in my dreams, and with it my old house. The numbers of the title of the poems are those of my old block (25) and my old house (number 33 Lesaca Street).

As for its form, and it is already understood that the number is not accidental, it is made up of 25 poems written in combinations of blank verses of five, seven and eleven syllables. Twenty of them are numbered with Arabic numerals and combined two by two they refer respectively to my father and my mother. The other five, numbered with Roman numerals, are always interspersed after a block of the other five. The collection of poems seeks a structural architecture consistent with the reason that inspires it.

I intend to be useful for what I do and to win the affection of those for whom I do it.

His extensive curriculum includes work as a teacher, writer and researcher. Perhaps you would like to be recognized only as a poet?

That would imply accepting the premise that I seek to be recognized. I don't aspire to that much. I intend to be useful for what I do and to win the affection of those for whom I do it, whether they are my students, my colleagues in the field of research or the readers of my creative books. Only that affection will remain; recognition is almost always peremptory.

His poetic work is characterized by its Christian existentialism. What is the origin of this reality?

My faith. I do not find a greater impulse than that, stimulated by the commitment to turn it into work at the service of others in everything I do. The main motto of my life is taken from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians (verse 13, 8 specifically): "Love will never pass away". Faith and love are the best inspiration for me.

Faith and love are the best inspiration for me

What is more difficult for you, preparing a class, starting an investigation or poetic creation?

Everything implies an effort if it is done with the necessary rigor and seriousness, but I must say that the pleasure with which I try to do it tempers the effort.

How do you start in the world of writing?

I explain this better in the audio that accompanies this interview. I refer to him.

What does his work contribute to others of the same court?

With total sincerity and with the greatest prudence, I understand that it is not I who should answer this question. Assuming that I contribute something, it is the others who must signify it.

What do you think the poetry reader is looking for today?

As I have said on other occasions, the reading of poetry is not determined by a single reader profile. Along with readers who are looking for a poetry that is poetry (not that it looks like poetry, and it is not the same) there are others –otherwise very respectable, of course, both readers and creators– who seem to be looking for something in poetry similar to what offers self-help, and of course there are authors who provide that answer with remarkable success.

The reading of poetry is not determined by a single reader profile

What is success for you?

Nothing worth chasing. Rudyard Kipling already said in one of his best-known poems (If) that success and failure are two great fakers.

What keys can you offer to those who decide to dedicate themselves to writing?

That they read relentlessly, that they never get arrogant, that they are coherent and grateful with the tradition that precedes us and that they do not give in to the temptation of considering that disruptive impulses can be more valuable than the cordiality and intelligibility that should animate the literary creation: almost everything is already invented.

What do you think of the situation of Culture today?

That it is a treasure that must be cared for and increased without rest, conditions or reservations, intelligently combining the different orientations that explain it and the different impacts that the creators pursue. Culture has always needed permanent care and attention, now and always.

Culture is a treasure that must be cared for and increased relentlessly

What should be done to give more visibility to Culture?

Increase the spaces and opportunities for creation in all fields, avoiding the cenacles, the little chapels and the useless factions that pretend to lead those who sometimes consider themselves superior to others, when not enlightened.

What kind of poetry do you consume when you are not writing it?

All the one that comes into my hands if it coincides with the criteria that I have exposed before, and many times, due to the necessary affection and courtesy, the one that does not coincide with them.

Do the new generations have fresh ideas?

Without a doubt, and may it always be so, but I refer to what was said in the tenth question of this interview.

I have almost closed another collection of poems in which I am going to gather my satirical poems, which are written with a studied mixture of lightness and gravity

What are your poetic references and who do you admire?

Among the many poets whom I admire, and to give just a few examples, are Garcilaso de la Vega, San Juan de la Cruz, Quevedo, Espronceda, Antonio Machado, Pedro Salinas, Blas de Otero, Rafael Morales, Luis Alberto de Cuenca, Edgar A. Poe, William B. Yeats, and Charles Bukowski.

What other projects do you have underway?

Right now I have started a new collection of poems that will take a few years to complete and I have almost closed another in which I am going to gather my satirical poems, which are written with a studied mixture of lightness and gravity. I also have long overdue to write a second book of stories, but I have a few left to complete it. And none of this can be done in a hurry.

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Interview with Madrid writer Santiago Alfonso López Navia, new winner of the 20th Emilio Alarcos Poetry Prize: "Faith and love are the best inspiration for me"
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