Photo: Kaloian Santos
The news that a few days ago was haunting the literary world of the island was confirmed at the end of this Tuesday afternoon. Cuban writer Leonardo Padura has won the National Literature Prize through which, each year, the Cuban Book Institute (ICL) recognizes authors whose works have made the best contribution to Cuban culture.
This distinction is considered, for many people, as a well deserved recognition in Cuba to one of its greatest living authors, the most popular and admired inside and outside the island, who has made use of the most diverse genres like the detective novel, essays, chronicles, and the film script to provide appropriate coordinates on Cuban current society.
Meanwhile Padura has endeavored from his column in the journal ¨El Caimán Barbudo¨ (The bearded alligator), to discover and analyze the marks Cuban current reality leaves on men and women who inhabit this island or the ones who are inhabited by this portion of land wherever they choose to live.
Mario Conde, star of the beloved novels Masks, Past Perfect, Winds of Lent and Autumn Landscape, titles that make up the tetralogy The Four Seasons and other works such as Goodbye Hemingway, The Tail of the Snake and Yesterday´s Mist, will stay forever rooted in Cuban popular imagination just as did in other times and places by detectives Raymond Chandler´s Marlowe, George Simenon´s Maigret and Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade.
The jury that granted the award by majority was made up by Reynaldo González, National Literature Prize in 2003 and chairman of this year, as well as intellectuals Denia Garcia Ronda, Jorge Fornet , Victor Fowler, Cira Romero, Astrid Santana and Marylin Bobes.
Padura will receive the National Literature Prize on February 17, 2013 at 4 pm in Nicolás Guillén Room of the La Cabaña Fortress, as part of the celebration of the 22nd edition of the International Book Fair of Havana.
Throughout his career this Cuban writer has won major prizes such as the Dashiell Hammett Award of the International Association of Crime Writers for his novel Autumn Landscape, the Literary Critic´s Prize which grants the ICL, the Prix Roger Caillois and the Carbet Award, all in 2011 for his novel The Man Who loved Dogs.
Cuba´s National Literature Prize was instituted in 1983 and its first was granted to Nicolas Guillen. Other writers who have won it are Dulce Maria Loynaz, Cintio Vitier, Carilda Oliver Labra, Jesus Orta Ruiz, Nancy Morejon, Daniel Chavarria and Cesar Lopez. With this recognition Padura becomes part, so undeniable, of Cuban cultural heritage.
Complete list of Cuba´s National Literature Prizes
Nicolás Guillén (1983)
José Zacarías Tallet (1984)
Félix Pita Rodríguez (1985)
Eliseo Diego (1986)
José Soler Puig (1986)
José Antonio Portuondo (1986)
Dulce María Loynaz (1987)
Cintio Vitier (1988)
Dora Alonso (1988)
Roberto Fernández Retamar (1989)
Fina García-Marruz (1990)
Angel Augier (1991)
Abelardo Estorino (1992)
Francisco de Oráa (1993)
Miguel Barnet (1994)
Jesús Orta Ruiz (1995)
Pablo Armando Fernández (1996)
Carilda Oliver (1997)
Roberto Friol (1998)
César López (1999)
Antón Arrufat (2000)
Nancy Morejón (2001)
Lisandro Otero (2002)
Reynaldo González (2003)
Jaime Sarusky (2004)
Graziella Pogolotti (2005)
Leonardo Acosta (2006)
Humberto Arenal (2007)
Luis Marré ( 2008 )
Ambrosio Fornet (2009)
Daniel Chavarría (2010)
Nersys Felipe (2011)
