The Sevillian author Julia Uceda, one of the “most personal and recognized” voices of current Spanish poetry and awarded the National Poetry Prize in 2003, among other prizes, has died this Sunday at the age of 98. The José Manuel Lara Foundation has confirmed the news in a statement and has conveyed all its “affection to her family and friends.” “Our letters are in mourning today,” they lamented. Her latest work, Complete poetrywas published in 2023.
Born in 1925, Uceda received her PhD in Philosophy and Letters from the University of Seville, where she taught for several years. She was a professor at Michigan State University (United States) from 1965 to 1973. After a brief stay in Spain, she left the country again to live in Ireland until 1976, when she moved to Galicia, where she lived.
Professor of Spanish Literature at National Institutes of Secondary Education and University Schools, her critical research work can be found in specialized literary journals in the United States and Spain. She belonged to the Royal Seville Academy of Fine Letters and the International Association of Hispanists.
His complete poetic work was collected in the volume In the wind, towards the sea (Vandalia, National Poetry Award in 2003). She also published Unknown Zone (Vandalia, Critics’ Prize in 2006 in the Poetry category) and Talking to a beech tree (2010). She is the author of the book of short stories Light on a frieze (2008).
The Andalusian Agency for Cultural Institutions, through the Andalusian Center for Letters, published in 2017 the anthology Old secret voicesa selection of texts from Julia Uceda’s entire literary production to date, prepared by critic and editor Ignacio F. Garmendia.
The Mayor of Seville, José Luis Sanz (PP), recalled this Sunday on the occasion of the death of the writer that she is “a memory of contemporary literature, with her city of Seville as the muse of her days”. “Her name will be forever linked to her city in the Public Library of La Macarena and in each of her essential works of Spanish culture of the 20th and 21st centuries”.