Born in Oliva, Valencia, in 1932, Francisco Brines has for many years come to be seen as a representative of a whole school of Spanish poets, the so-called Generation of the 1950s. Among the most profoundly elegiac of living poets, Brines has been awarded such important prizes in Spain as the Crítica Prize (1966), the National Poetry Prize (1986) and the prestigious Federico García Lorca Prize (2007). In 2001 he was elected a member of the Royal Spanish Academy, to the seat previously occupied by Antonio Buero Vallejo.His major collections include Las brasas (Embers) (1960), Palabras a la oscuridad (Words into the Dark) (1966), Aún no (Not Yet) (1971), Insistencias en Luzbel (Insistences on Lucifer) (1977), El otoño de las rosas (The Autumn of the Roses) (1986) and La última costa (The Final Shore) (1995). His collected poems from 1960-1997, Ensayo de una despedida (Rehearsal for a Leave-Taking), was published in 1997.
Brines currently resides in his native Oliva, Valencia.
In April 2010 Brines was awarded the prestigious Premio Reina Sofía de Poesia Iberoamericana.
Photo: Paula Villar de la Cruz
