Núria Albó


Núria Albó i Corrons is a Spanish writer, teacher, and politician. She is a Creu de Sant Jordi and Premi Vila de'Arenys laureate.

Early life

Albó was born on 2 July 1930 in La Garriga near Barcelona. Her father was killed on 18 September 1936 during the Spanish Civil War. She was not able to have a normal education because of the war, but her mother created home schooling for Albó and her four siblings. Albó's love of music was supported by her mother, who arranged for her to learn the piano.
Albó supplemented her education by reading novels by Hans Christian Andersen and those illustrated by the Spanish Lola Anglada and the English Arthur Rackham. Even as a child, she tried to read books that were written in the language Catalan and this partnered her first experiments with writing.

Career

She began her studies in philosophy at the University of Barcelona, in 1948, but left before finishing. She returned later and received a degree in pedagogy in 1962. She won her first literary prize in 1958. In 1962 she published a poetry collection with La mà pel front, releasing another ten years later entitled Díptic with Maria Àngels Anglada,
with a foreword by Marià Manent and illustrations by Ricard Creus.
A teacher for 20 years, she was elected mayor of La Garriga in 1979. Her 1980 novel, Desencis was awarded the Premi Vila de'Arenys. A political novel set during elections, her characters are described as "contradictory" and "tender, intelligent and sometimes lucid, but at the same time conformist and passive." She is a contemporary of Maria Àngels Anglada, Maria Aurèlia Capmany, Clementina Arderiu, Rosa Leveroni, and Maria Beneyto.

Personal life

Albó is married to Guillermo Serra with whom she has four children, Mireia, Guillem, Oriol, and Judit. She received the Creu de Sant Jordi Award in 2012.

Selected works

Poems