Margaret Atwood received the third Joan Margarit International Poetry Prize from Spain’s King Felipe VI at Victoria University in Toronto on Wednesday, in a ceremony that brought together literary recognition and reflections on democracy.
Diario Libre reported that the presentation took place in the university’s former chapel during the king’s three-day official visit to Canada. Before the ceremony, Felipe VI and the 86-year-old Canadian writer walked arm in arm through the university garden.
The event reunited Atwood and the king 18 years after he presented her with the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature in Oviedo, Spain. This time, the honour recognized her poetry through a prize named for the Catalan writer Joan Margarit.
In his remarks, Felipe VI thanked Atwood for helping readers better understand their era, their societies and themselves. He described that contribution as a defining achievement of both her extensive career and great literature.
The king also praised the range of Atwood’s interests and accomplishments, discussing her work as a novelist and poet alongside her engagement with nature and other pursuits. He presented her multifaceted character as a reflection of Canada.
He highlighted her sharp humour and her writing’s warnings about possible dystopian futures, expressing the hope that those dangers would not become reality.
Atwood, in turn, thanked Felipe VI for visiting Canada. In her acceptance speech, she said international relationships and friendships were becoming increasingly important for people fortunate enough to continue living in democracies.
Her address examined poetry’s place in difficult times. She said poets have often been among the first people silenced following violent political change because they can express forbidden ideas persuasively, making their work threatening to autocrats.
Atwood described the present as another period of global crises and uncertainty. She questioned what poetry could accomplish against material power or the ill will of powerful people.
She also said governments operating outside the rule of law, or under unjust and unequal laws, were not a new phenomenon. Despite those limits and dangers, she expressed hope that poetry could offer something especially necessary in dark periods: hope itself.
The prize is supported by the Instituto Cervantes, publisher La Cama Sol and Margarit’s family. Its purpose is to broaden international awareness of Margarit’s work while celebrating distinguished contemporary poets.
Margarit, who lived from 1938 to 2021, wrote poetry in Catalan and Spanish and was also an architect and professor. His honours included the 2019 Cervantes Prize and the Queen Sofía Poetry Prize.
Speaking at the Toronto ceremony, Instituto Cervantes director Luis García Montero recalled Margarit and praised Atwood’s defence of human rights. He described her writing as an exploration of personal experience and identity that also embraces political commitment, joy and activism.
