The poet Marta Agudo died at the age of 52 after a long battle against breast cancer that had afflicted her for five years. The Madrid-born author published her last book, “Sacrificio” (Bartleby), in 2021 and collaborated in 2020 with Lastura Ediciones on the work “Enciende una luz. Palabras desde el cáncer,” the proceeds of which went entirely to research at the Intheos Foundation and the Asociación Española Cáncer de Mama Metastásico (Spanish Metastatic Breast Cancer Association).
Agudo, who holds a doctorate in Hispanic Philology, published works such as “28010” and “Historial,” both by Calambur, and co-edited the anthology “Campo abierto. Antología del poema en prosa en España” (1990–2005) (2005), and in 2010, she co-edited with Jordi Doce the volume “Pájaros raíces. En torno a José Ángel Valente.” The Godall publishing house recalls that that same year he published an extensive study on Valente’s stay in Madrid within the volume ‘Valente vital’, and in 2014 a translation into Spanish of the collection of poems “Tot és ara i res,” by Joan Vinyoli.
In addition, Agudo directed the poetry and painting publishing house “El Lotófago” and worked as a literary critic for “Ámbito Cultural,” “Nayagua,” Quimera” and “Turia,” among other publications. Her works have been included in anthologies such as “Poesía pasión” (ed. Eduardo Moga) and “Sombras di-versas: Seventeen current Spanish poets” (1970–1991) (ed. Amalia Iglesias) and have been translated into Italian, English, and Arabic.
The news of her passing has shocked the literary community and her readers, who have remembered her on social networks with some of her most outstanding poems, such as the beginning of her poem “Me llamo Marta,” in which she writes about her own name and identity. Her colleagues have remembered her as an “irreplaceable poet” and a “great loss for poetry.”