The Faculty of Arts at the Universitat de Lleida (UdL) is mourning the death of Jaume Pont Ibáñez, a retired professor of Spanish literature who dedicated over 40 years to the university. Pont is regarded as one of the most distinguished poets in the Catalan literary scene since he published his first poetry collection, Límit(s), in 1976.
Throughout his career, Pont received numerous accolades, including the Vicent Andrés Estellés Prize in 1982, the Serra d'Or Criticism Prize in 1991 and 1997 for Raó d'atzar and Vol de cendres, respectively, and the National Criticism Prize in 2001 for Llibre de la frontera: de Musa Ibn-Al-Tubbi. He was also awarded the Carles Riba Prize in 2006 for Enlloc, the Virgile de Poésie Prize in 2012, and the Literary Trajectory Prize from the Cadaqués Town Council in 2022. The French translation of his latest poetry collection, Mirall de negra nit, received the Prix Mallarmé étranger.
Pont combined creative writing with scholarly work on contemporary Hispanic literature, authoring books such as Espejo y laberinto. He specialised in 19th and 20th-century literature, producing numerous studies, including those focused on Antonio Ros de Olano and the fantastic narrative, as well as Carlos Edmundo de Ory and the postist movement. His poetic works have been translated into a dozen languages.
Núria Casado, the Vice-Rector for Culture at UdL and a former student of Pont, expressed her "deep sadness over the loss of one of our university's leading literary figures, whose poetry has international reach." She also highlighted Pont's human side, describing him as "a beloved person among colleagues and students, who carried the UdL in his heart." In 2023, Pont was honoured by around sixty friends and colleagues from the academic, literary, and artistic communities, coinciding with the publication of the book Una mirada escrita. En honor de Jaume Pont.
