Martín Veiga (Lic., CAP (Santiago de Compostela), PhD (NUI-Cork)) is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies (SPLAS), University College Cork. He is also the director of the Irish Centre for Galician Studies & co-editor of Galicia 21. Journal of Contemporary Galician Studies.

He is Programme Director of the Higher Diploma in Arts (Spanish), member of the research group Crosswinds: Irish and Galician Poetry and Translation (University of Galway, Moore Institute) and member of the research project 'Post-Human Intersections in Irish and Galician Literatures' (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela). He was Head of the Department of SPLAS (2021-2024) and co-convenor of the research cluster Translation and Creative Practice (CASiLaC, UCC) (2015-2024).

His main research areas are contemporary Galician and Irish poetry, literary translation, creative writing, ecocriticism, and travel and mobility narratives in the Hispanic world, mainly in the Iberian context. He has published extensively on the life and work of Galician poet Antón Avilés de Taramancos.

His books include the monograph Escribir na multitude: a obra literaria de Antón Avilés de Taramancos (2014), the biographies Antón Avilés de Taramancos (2003) and Biografía sonora de Avilés de Taramancos (2009, with Ana Romaní and Rodrigo Romaní), an annotated edition of the poetry collection Cantos caucanos (2003) and the edited volumes Raiceiras e vento. A obra poética de Antón Avilés de Taramancos (2003), Reading Spanish and Latin American Literatures: New Directions in Research (2005, with Nuala Finnegan), A Different Eden: Ecopoetry from Ireland and Galicia (2021, with Keith Payne and Lorna Shaughnessy) and Here and Beyond: Narratives of Travel and Mobility in Iberian Culture (2022, with Helena Buffery, Sergi Mainer and David Miranda-Barreiro).

He has edited three special issues of Galicia 21. Journal of Contemporary Galician Studies entitled Espazos naturais, mobilidades textuais: novas perspectivas críticas sobre a obra de Xavier Queipo (2013), Unha nova xeira (2014-2015, with David Miranda-Barreiro) and Text, Image, Archive: Galician Literature and the Visual Arts (2022, with David Miranda-Barreiro). He is also the co-editor of a special issue of the Journal of Romance Studies, entitled EcoModLang: Greening the field of languages and cultures (2025, with Armelle Blin-Rolland and Margaret C. Flinn).

Moreover, Martín Veiga has published the following six award-winning poetry collections in Galician: Tempo van de porcelana (1990), As últimas ruínas (1994, Premio Espiral Maior), Ollos de ámbar (2005, Premio Esquío), Fundaxes (2006, Premio Fiz Vergara Vilariño), Diario de Crosses Green (2016) - which was also published in English translation by Keith Payne as Diary of Crosses Green (2018) - and a ganancia e a perda (2020, shortlisted for the Premio Follas Novas do Libro Galego). Also in 2020, he published the bilingual Galician-English anthology Alfaias na lama: Poesía selecta 1990-2020 / Jewels in the Mud: Selected Poems 1990-2020, selected and introduced by Xosé María Álvarez Cáccamo and translated into English by Keith Payne.

He has translated into Galician poems by e. e. cummings, Geoffrey Hill, T. E. Hulme, Ezra Pound and W. B. Yeats. His most recent published translations are Ferrovías (2020) [Railtracks] by John Berger and Anne Michaels, with photographs by Tereza Stehlíková; A nai sombra (2021) [The Shadow Mother] by Seán Virgo, illustrated by Javier Serrano Pérez; and Catro cuartetos (2023) [Four Quartets] by T. S. Eliot.

In 2017, Veiga received the Premio Pedrón de Honra for his trajectory in the international promotion of Galician culture.

Education Qualifications

Dr. Veiga is an internationally recognised researcher and creative practitioner whose work lies in the intersection between critical analysis of literary texts, creative writing and translation theory and practice. These three main areas of inquiry develop in dialogue with each other and form a cohesive, innovative and over-arching research plan with creative practices embedded at its heart. His main research areas, closely connected to his work as a poet and literary translator, are contemporary poetry, translation studies, ecocriticism, and travel writing and mobility narratives in the Iberian context, with particular focus on Galician studies. His record of research and scholarly outputs demonstrates his critical engagement with these areas, resulting in creative professional activity that has achieved international recognition.

As part of his long-standing research collaborations with colleagues at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, he was a member of the research projects 'Eco-fictions: Emergent Discourses on Woman and Nature in Galicia and Ireland' (2016-18) and 'The Animal Trope: An Ecofeminist Analysis of Contemporary Culture in Galicia and Ireland' (2019-22), and he is currently a member of the project 'Posthuman Intersections in Irish and Galician Literatures' (2023-26). Further information on these projects is available here: https://irgal.es/.

Together with the PI Dr Armelle Blin-Rolland (Prifysgol Bangor / Bangor University, Wales) and Dr Margaret C. Flinn (The Ohio State University), he is a member of the research project 'Greening Modern Languages: Research and Teaching' (2023-), which aims to think about the role that our discipline has to play in times of ecological crises. More information is available here: https://www.ecomodlang.com

Veiga's publication record includes books, edited volumes, journal articles, book chapters, as well as six award-winning poetry collections and many poems in journals and anthologies in Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, Ireland and the UK. More recent publications have concentrated on literary translation, investigating the links between research and translation as creative practice through the translation of work by authors such as John Berger, T. S. Eliot and Anne Michaels.

He is the Director of the Irish Centre for Galician Studies (ICGS) at University College Cork, a research environment that generates, promotes and fosters high quality research. The Centre aims to continue enhancing the expansion of postgraduate research in the area of Galician Studies and to consolidate the ICGS as a platform for national and international collaboration projects.

Dr Veiga engages in teaching both independently and collaboratively within academic teams. Furthermore, he serves as Programme Director of the Higher Diploma in Arts (Spanish) and as Coordinator of the Literary Translator in Residence initiative at the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures (SLLC):