Joan Margarit i Consarnau

Who is Joan Margarit i Consarnau?

Joan Margarit i Consarnau is a Catalan poet, architect and retired Professor.

Born to the parents of Joan Margarit i Serradell, an architect from Barcelona and Trinitat Consarnau i Sabaté, a teacher at l'Ametlla de Mar, he grew up at the time of the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. His family moved many times around Catalonia. In 1954 the family settled at the Canary Islands, but in 1956 Margarit returned to Barcelona to complete architecture studies, lodging at the University Hall of Residence the Collegi Major Sant Jordi. It would be a year after he finished his studies that Joan would meet his future wife, Mariona Ribalta. A year later, they were married. They now have three daughters; Mònica, Anna & Joana, and a son, Carlos.

Since 1975, Margarit has lived in Sant Just Desvern. Since 1980 he has worked there as an architect with friend and associate Carle Buxadé. In addition to that, from 1968 until recently, he was also Professor of Structural Calculations at Barcelona's Technical School of Architecture in the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

Since 1963, Magrit has firmly established himself as a recognisable Spanish poet. Margarit first started publishing poetry in Spanish, in 1963 and 1965. After a break of ten years, he published Crónica, with help of his friend Joaquim Marco, director of the Ocnos series at the publishing house Barral Editores. From 1980 onwards, he began to establish himself as a poet in the Catalan language. His works were translated to English, Russian and Hebrew. Recitations of Margarit's poems with musical backdrop were recorded by the musicians Pere Rovira, Gerard Quintana, Araceli Aiguaviva and Miquel Poveda.