Violeta Gil

- Spain -

Violeta Gil was born in Hoyuelos, a small town in Segovia, Spain, in 1983. She got her BA in English from Complutense University, and her theatre degree from the Royal Drama School, both in Madrid. In  2005 she founded La tristura, her theatre company, along with Celso Giménez and Itsaso Arana. She writes, directs and produces pieces that are shown in venues such Festival de Otoño in Madrid, Thèâtre de la Ville in Paris, TEMPO festival in Rio de Janeiro, Cena Contemporânea in Brasilia or Kampnagel  Summer International Festival in Hamburg, among others. She teaches creative workshops for theatre staging and writing. In 2015 she moved to Iowa City where she got her MFA in Spanish Creative Writing at the University of Iowa. She is a translator of prose and poetry. She has been an artist in residence at Yaddo and Headlands Center for the Arts, her company is resident at Teatros del Canal, in Madrid. Her first collection of poems appeared at Arrebato Libros in 2019, a show with the same name is now touring around Spain. She’s currently working on a collection of essays.

All the texts by La tristura are published by Cuadernos de Teatro y Danza. French translation of CINE published by Actualité Editions. A forthcoming collection of their last three pieces at Punto de Vista Editores will see light in April 2020.

 

 

READINGS AND PERFORMATIVE POETRY SESSIONS

 

  • 2019 Antes de que tiréis mis cosas show at Caixa Forum (Madrid), Cosmopoética Festival (Córdoba), Irreconciliables Festival (Málaga) among others
  • 2019 Poetry performance at Teatro del Barrio, Madrid
  • 2019 Poetry reading tour at various bookstores around Spain
  • 2019 Antes de que tiréis mis cosas show at Fernán Gómez theatre, Madrid
  • 2018 “Zama x Zama” reading at Tabakalera Donostia with Selva Almada, San Sebastián
  • 2017 Graduation reading at Prairie Lights bookstore, Iowa City
  • 2017 Mission Creek Festival Reading at High Ground Cafe, Iowa City
  • 2015/2017 Subtitulados reading series at High Ground Cafe, Iowa City
  • 2016 IWP reading series at Prairie Lights bookstore, Iowa City

 

 

RESIDENCIES

 

  • 2019 Writing Residency at Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, U.S.
  • 2017/2020 La tristura is Company in Residence at Teatros del Canal, Madrid, Spain
  • 2018 Writing Residency at Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, U.S.

 

 

OTHERS

 

  • 2018/2019 La Veronal Dance company/Writer and translator for their international programs. 
  • 2015/2017 Subtitulados in Iowa City/Concept, curation and management/A reading series featuring work in Spanish with English subtitles in collaboration with the students of the Spanish Creative Writing MFA and the Translation MFA at the University of Iowa.
  • 2016 Creative Writing Workshop with Mark Ravenhill/ Interpreter and translator for the Fringe Festival, Matadero Madrid.
  • 2015 Habitación propia/ Concept and production/ A sound installation created by Violeta Gil for the Centro de Arte Cárcel in Segovia.
  • 2014 El artista sin obra/ Performer/A performance created by Dora García/ Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo de Móstoles, Madrid.

 

 

LANGUAGES

 

First Language: Spanish.

Secondary Language Knowledge: English-fluent/ French-partially proficient.


All the poems in Spanish are published by Arrebato  Libros (2019) from the collection “antes de que tiréis mis cosas”, by Violeta Gil.

A marathon version is published in the online magazine Iowa Literaria.

The English version of La Ventanita is published in the online magazine Leveler Poetry.

The English texts are written and translated by Violeta Gil, with the collaboration of Kelsi Vanada.

More about the poet

Poetry

  1. self elegy / autoelegía

  2. marathon / maratón

  3. i wish i could be like blanca varela / ojalá pudiera ser como blanca varela

  4. i’m responsible for the things i create / soy responsable de responder a todas las cosas que genero

  5. i can’t stop thinking about that day at walmart’s parking lot, i went to get some ibuprofen for period pain, La ventanita started playing, i rolled the windows down, started to sing crazily, cause i was not in europe and none of my friends from spain could hear me. i will never admitt to doing it, i forgot the pain and thought that was what being in love is all about. / no puedo parar de pensar en aquel día en el aparcamiento del walmart, había ido para comprar ibuprofeno para el dolor de regla, empezó a sonar La ventanita, y bajé las ventanas del coche, me puse a cantar sin miedo, porque no estaba en europa y no me escuchaba ninguno de mis amigos de españa. jamás reconoceré haberlo hecho, se me olvidó el dolor y sentí que de eso iba estar enamorada.