Elías Portela

Elías Portela Fernández, born in Cangas, Pontevedra in 1981, is a poet and translator into Galician language, Spanish language and Icelandic language, a language in which he publishes under the pseudonym Elías Knörr.
His work is based on the possibilities of words and the search for an inspiration completely external to the author. He adapts in his texts images and poetic concepts from other languages, including his own artificial language, Lwyma.
He began in adolescence within the group of poets of the IES María Soliño and received a second prize in poetry in the XXVII Minerva Literary Contest. In the following years he left writing and recitals, until in 2008 he published Images in the Skin at the Morgante publishing house. In 2010 he published his second book in Galician Cos Peitos Desenchufados in Ediciones Barbantesa and received the Xohán de Cangas Prize for Literary Creation 2010.
His career in Icelandic began under the anonymity he created under his pseudonym. Portela signs his poems as Elías Knörr, thus hiding his foreign origin, but also creating a heteronym with which he will dialogue in Cos peitos desenchufados. From 2008, some of his poems began circulating on the Internet and appeared published in the magazine Stína Tímarit um bókmenntir og listir. In the spring of 2010, the Poetry Society of the United Kingdom selected him as one of the three most representative poets of current Icelandic lyric poetry, and it was published in the 100th edition of the UK Poetry Review along with Sjón and Kári Tuliniushttps://web.archive.org/web/20101220172530/http://poetrysociety.org.uk/lib/tmp/cmsfiles/File/review/1001/IcelandNow.pdf. In October 2010 he published Sjóarinn með morgunhestana undir kjólnum still under a pseudonym in the publishing house Stella. But on November 24 of that year, the publisher made public its identity https://web.archive.org/web/20160306105816/http://frustella.org/?p=145 after an excellent reception from critics. He is a regular contributor to the UNESCO Literary City Bókmenntaborg and under the personality of Michaël Drake (1441) is part of Reykjavík Rauða Skáldahúsið's poetic brothel.
He has presented poems in English, Spanish and Italian in various recitals and at the XV International Meeting of Writers of Monterrey, but his work in these languages ​​is currently unpublished.
In 2014 he received the Afundación Poetry Prize for his poem Bazar de Traidoreshttp://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/cultura/2014/11/26/elias-portela-conquista-bazar-traidores-premio-afundacion/0003_201411G26P39991.htm.
In parallel with literary creation, Portela translated several works of contemporary Icelandic literature: the novels Skugga-baldur and The Boy Who Never Existed by Sjón and Angels of the Universe by Einar Már Gudmundsson, authors awarded the Nordic Council Literary Prize in 2005 and 1995 respectively, in addition to the so-called "Vinland sagas": Saga of the Greenlanders and Saga of Erik the Purple.
A significant part of Portela's work explores the possibilities of language and draws inspiration from external sources. He adapts images and poetic concepts from various languages, including Lwyma, an artificial language he created based on Faroese, the native language of the Faroe Islands. Despite being a constructed language, Portela has written poetry in Lwyma, expanding the boundaries of linguistic expression.
* Imaxes na pel, Morgante, 2008.
* Cos peitos desenchufados, Edicións Barbantesa, 2010.
* Sjóarinn með morgunhestana undir kjólnum, Stella, 2010 (versión galega O mariñeiro con cabalos matutinos baixo o vestido, Edicións Barbantesa, 2011).
* Bazar de traidores, PEN Clube de Galicia, 2015, e Edicións Barbantesa, 2016.
* Anxos do universo, de Einar Már Gudmundsson, Rinoceronte, 2006.
* Skugga-baldur. Unha lenda islandesa, de Sjón, Rinoceronte, 2009.
* Saga dos Groenlandeses. Saga de Erik o Roxo (anónimo), Rinoceronte, 2010.
* La mujer es una isla, de Auor Ava Ólafsdóttir, Alfaguara, 2012
* Meu amor, eu morro, de Kristín Ómarsdóttir, Rinoceronte, 2015.
* O rapaz que nunca existiu, de Sjón, Rinoceronte, 2017http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/fugas/2017/06/23/letrista-bjork-escribe-ritmo-cine-rapaz-nunca-existiu/0003_201706SF23P8991.htm.
* Portela received second prize in the XII Díaz Jácome Poetry Prize in 2011. 
* In 2014, he was awarded the Afundación Poetry Prize for his work Bazar de traidores.
* Sentimentalismo. Antoloxía de referencia. Etapa de expansión, 2013, Bubela.
* 150 Cantares para Rosalía de Castro, 2015, libro electrónico.
* Icelandic poetry anthology Ljóð í læðin: skáld um Reykjavík (Poems Along the Way: Poets About Reykjavik), published by Meðgönguljóða in 2013.
Category:1981 births
Category:Spanish poets
Category:Spanish translators
Category:People from Cangas de Onís