Juan Carlos Mestre (1957– ) poet and graphic artist, is the author of several books of poetry and essays, such as Antífona del Otoño en el Valle del Bierzo (Adonáis Prize, 1985), La visita de Safo y otros poemas para despedir a Lenon, La poesía ha caído en desgracia (Jaime Gil de Biedma Prize, 1992) and La tumba de Keats (Jaén Poetry Prize, 1999). His book La casa roja (The Red House) won the 2009 National Poetry Prize, and La bicicleta del panadero (The Baker's Bicycle) received the 2012 Critics' Prize and the Estado Crítico Prize in the same year. His latest collection of poems, Museo de la clase obrera (Museum of the Working Class), was published in 2018, followed in 2019 by 20O gramos de patacas tristes (200 Grams of Sad Patacas), his first book written in the Galician language.

In 2017, he was awarded the Castilla y León Prize for Literature in recognition of his entire body of work, as well as the European ‘Homer’ Medal for Poetry and Art and the ‘Annual Cheng Ziáng Prize of the China Writers Association’.

He has compiled anthologies of the poetic works of Rafael Pérez Estrada, Rosamel del Valle, as well as an annotated edition of Enrique Gil y Carrasco's novel, El señor de Bembibre (2004). He is also the author of El universo está en la noche (2006), a book of versions of Mesoamerican myths and legends, as well as the translation, together with Guadalupe Grande, of La aldea de sal (The Village of Salt) by Brazilian poet Lêdo Ivo, and, together with Alexandra Domínguez, of Saint-John Perse's Obra poética 1904-1974 (Poetic Works 1904-1974), published by Galaxia Gutenberg in 2021.

As an artist, he has exhibited graphic and pictorial work in galleries in Spain, the United States, Europe, and Latin America. He has illustrated, among many other publications, books by Enrique Gil y Carrasco, Fernando Fernán Gómez, Antonio Gamoneda, Federico García Lorca, Jorge Manrique, Carlos Oquendo de Amat, and Guillaume Apollinaire.

Author photo from his website: https://www.juancarlosmestre.com/biografia/