Award-winning poet, translator and academic, Jaume Subirana is one of Catalonia’s most treasured poets, winning some of its most prestigious prizes for his poetry and essays. In an eloquent translation from accomplished poet and translator Christopher Whyte, The Silent Letter showcases Subirana’s sharp observations, delicate eye for detail, stunningly beautiful images, and poignant suspension of the moment.

Jaume Subirana (Barcelona, 1963) is a writer, translator, and professor of Literature at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. He has published seven collections of poetry, the latest being La hac/The Silent Letter. In 1988 he won Catalan poetry’s most prestigious prize, the Carles Riba. In 2011, he was awarded the Gabriel Ferrater prize for Una pedra sura. He has published various essays, three volumes of award-winning diaries, and has translated Billy Collins, Seamus Heaney (with Pauline Ernest), Ted Kooser (with Miquel Àngel Llauger), Berta Piñán, Gary Snyder (with José Luis Regojo), R.S. Thomas and the children’s poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson into Catalan. He is currently the vice-president of PEN Català. When he can, he enjoys listening to music, going fishing, daydreaming, and travelling.

Christopher Whyte (Glasgow, 1952) writes his own poetry in Scottish Gaelic, with his sixth collection Ceum air Cheum/Step by Step (2019) being nominated for two national awards. Between 1995 and 2000 he published four novels in English and he has translated into English the poetry of Rilke and Pasolini, as well as poets from Catalan, Croatian and Hungarian. Whyte is also known for his groundbreaking, innovative and at times controversial work researching and critiquing Scottish literature, with particular reference to literary theory, gender and queer studies. Whyte left a distinguished career as an academic in 2005 to devote himself entirely to writing. Currently he divides his time between Budapest and Prague.

“Subirana’s singular poetry expresses both the enigma and the perplexity it can provoke within the patient observer of landscape. He is enchanted by the triviality of the self before the grandiosity of the surroundings, bringing form to this through an austere, timeless poetry.”—Enric Umbert-Rexach, El Nacional

“Subirana plays with surprise, a game he is particularly good at when working with maximum brevity in his poetry.”—Gerard E. Mur, El Nuvol

“Subirana is ever faithful to his poetry, bringing it to lifetime and again. His work is serene, excellent, full of echoes of literary standing and precise creativity. His is a mature, important poetry. Bravo.”—Jordi Galves, La Vanguardia
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