MORE than 650 works by authors from 24 countries in the Americas are competing in the 56th edition of the Casa de las Américas Prize for literature 2015, whose winners will be announced in Havana on January 29, organizers informed.
Argentina is the country with the highest representation in the contest with 173 texts, followed by Cuba (142), Brazil (71), Colombia (65) Mexico (34) and Peru (33), Jorge Fornet, director of the LiteraryResearchCenter at the Casa de las Americas, explained at a press conference.
The genre of poetry has the highest number of entries this year, at 232, although 179 novels have also been presented, a record number in this category.
116 works in children's and youth literature have been submitted as well as 71 in the category of Brazilian literature, while 29 works are competing for the award for best historical-social essay and 25 for that of Latin American literature from the United States.
The jury will be composed of intellectuals, historians, poets, researchers and literary critics from Argentina, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Spain, France, Brazil, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Cuba.
They include the Colombian historian and researcher, Alfonso Múnera, the writer of the same nationality, Piedad Bonnet, the Argentine Ema Wolf, 2005 Alfaguara Novel Prize winner, the Spanish editor, Ignacio Echeverría, Chileans Nona Fernández and Marta Harnecker, Ecuadorean Edgar Allan García, the French researcher, Sylvie Josserand, Panamanian critic, Manuel Oreste Nieto, and Cuban writer, Zuleica Román.
The program of cultural activities linked to the contest will begin on Monday 19 with the formation of the jury followed by a presentation of the 2014 winners and other publications of the Casa, as well as a series of plays, lectures, concerts and exhibitions.
The organizers highlighted the tribute being paid to Argentine writer, Julio Cortázar (1914-1984), given his special relationship with the Casa and the centenary of his birth, with the presentation of the “Cortázar Virtual Archive”, resulting from the digitalization of documents, works and materials.
The Director of the Casa’s library, Alien González, explained that the archive brings together digital copies of a “highly valuable” collection of materials, which will be made available to researchers interested in the author of Rayuela (Hopscotch) through a free software platform.
The exhibition entitled, “Cortázar-Cuba. Cartas cruzadas”, will also be dedicated to the Argentine writer, including excerpts from his works, literary documents and collected letters, as well as a series of film versions of his works.
Press agencies in Havana highlighted that since its creation, the Casa de las Américas Prize has generated thousands of submissions by different authors of the continent, and more than a hundred have been awarded, according to data provided by promoters.
