The Casa de las Americas Literary Prize celebrates its 55th edition , from the 20th to 30th of this month , organized by the cultural institution Casa de las Americas, based in Havana.
Nearly 400 works from several countries were registered for the various categories of the competition. Argentina, Cuba, Mexico and Colombia are among the most represented.
The new edition of the event is dedicated to honoring Latin American writers Julio Cortázar , Octavio Paz, José Revueltas, Julia de Burgos, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Efraín Huerta and Nicanor Parra and the centenary of their birthdays .
The jury for this occasion, is integrated by leading writers and intellectuals of the region as Mexican Rosa Beltran, Argentina Saul Sosnowski , Puerto Rican Juan Gelpi , Dominican Chiqui Vicious , Cuban Emerio Medina, Osvaldo Cano, Alberto Garrandés, Maria Teresa Ortega , Norma Vasallo and Pablo Armando Fernández , and the Brazilian Eric Nepomuceno, who will select the winners in the categories of stories, essays of literary artistic subject, theater and Brazilian and Caribbean English or Creole literature.
The “Special Award Women’s Studies” is also included, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the program that the institution dedicated to these inquiries.
As part of the event they will present the winning books of Casa de las Americas Literary Prize of the previous edition, as well as the usual space for dialogue with writers and intellectuals, who will face issues relating to the editing and translation of Caribbean literature of today, or the challenge of narrating at times when social networks are taking over.
On Tuesday 28 the Aragón Orchestra will join the event along the visual arts with the exhibition Del Cuerpo y la Memoria, in the Latin American Gallery, at the confluence of photography, installations and video, by the artists Carmen Novo (Brazil), Karla Solano (Costa Rica) and Beatriz Ruibal (Spain).
On Thursday January 30, at 7:00 pm, the jury will announce the winners of this year.
The Literary Award Casa de las Americas, one of the oldest in America, was first convened in April 1959 in order to stimulate and disseminate the literature of the Continent.
Written by: Gicelda Hernández Chirino