The Winner Of The 16th Edition Of The Alfaguara Novel Prize To Be Announced On March 20

Latin America - español

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Feb 14, 2013, 03:51 ET

MIAMI, Feb. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

For its 16^th edition, a record-breaking 802 original manuscripts were received from various places in Spain and Latin America.
Manuel Rivas presides over the jury for the 16^th edition of the Alfaguara Novel Prize.
This year, the Alfaguara Novel Prize is celebrating its 16^th edition, having established itself as a benchmark for quality literary awards with the highest international exposure of any Spanish language award.
The prize consists of 175,000 dollars and a statue by Martin Chirino, as well as the simultaneous publication of the winning work in 19 Spanish-speaking countries.

(Prisa Ediciones) On Wednesday, March 20^th, the winner of the 16^th edition of the Alfaguara Novel Prize will be announced. A record-breaking 802 manuscripts were received for this edition of the Prize. Of the 802 contending manuscripts, 342 came from Spain, 133 from Mexico, 99 from Argentina, 61 from Colombia, 34 from the United States, 28 from Chile, 23 from Venezuela, 19 from Ecuador, 18 from Peru 9 from Guatemala and Honduras, 8 from Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua, 8 from Bolivia as well, 7 from El Salvador, 7 from Uruguay, 4 from Paraguay, and 2 from Puerto Rico.

The Prize's prestigious jury is composed of writers and prominent cultural figures. This year, writer Manuel Rivas will preside over the jury for the 15th edition of the Alfaguara Novel Prize. The names of other members of the jury will be made public at the time of the announcement.

Manuel Rivas was born in A Coruna. His articles and features are gathered in El periodismo es un cuento (1997), Mujer en el bano (2003), and A cuerpo abierto (2008). For his works in fiction, Rivas has received, among others, the Spanish Literary Critics' Award for Un millon de vacas (1990), the Literary Critics' Award in Galician for En salvaje compania (1994), the Premio Nacional de Narrativa for Que me quieres, amor? (1996), the Spanish Literary Critics' Award for El lapiz del carpintero (1998), and the Literary Critics' Award in Galician for Los libros arden mal (2006), considered as one of the greatest works in Galician literature and chosen Book of the Year by Madrid's Booksellers Guild. In 2011, Alfaguara published his short stories under the name Lo mas extrano. His latest novel is titled Las voces bajas (2012).

Since its first edition in 1998, the Alfaguara Novel Prize has been presided by: Carlos Fuentes, Eduardo Mendoza, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Antonio Munoz Molina, Jorge Semprun, Luis Mateo Diez, Jose Saramago, Jose Manuel Caballero Bonald, Angeles Mastretta, Mario Vargas Llosa, Sergio Ramirez, Luis Goytisolo, Manuel Vicent, Bernardo Atxaga, and Rosa Montero.

The Alfaguara Novel Prize's prestige throughout the Spanish-speaking world means that winning works enjoy international distribution, supported by the simultaneous publishing of the winning work in Spain, Latin America and the United States. To date, the winners of the Alfaguara Novel Prize are Caracol Beach by Eliseo Alberto, and Margarita, esta linda la mar by Sergio Ramirez (winners both of the first edition of the Prize), Son de Mar by Manuel Vicent, Ultimas noticias del paraiso by Clara Sanchez, La piel del cielo by Elena Poniatowska, El vuelo de la reina by Tomas Eloy Martinez, Diablo Guardian by Xavier Velasco, Delirio by Laura Restrepo, El turno del escriba by Graciela Montes and Ema Wolf, Abril rojo by Santiago Roncagliolo, Mira si yo te querre by Luis Leante, Chiquita by Antonio Orlando Rodriguez, El viajero del siglo by Andres Neuman, El arte de la resurreccion by Hernan Rivera Letelier, El ruido de las cosas al caer by Juan Gabriel Vasquez, and Una misma noche by Leopoldo Brizuela.

Successive Alfaguara Prize winners have gone on to garner the best reviews in the international arena as well as further awards, corroborating the literary quality of the winning entries. The award-winning novel in 2009, El viajero del siglo, by Andres Neuman, won the Literary Critics' Award a year later. In addition, the English publication, published in the U.K. by Pushkin Press, was chosen as one of the best novels in 2012 by the Financial Times, The Guardian and The Independent. Abril Rojo, by Santiago Roncagliolo (winner of the Alfaguara Prize in 2006), won the 2011 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, one of U.K.'s most prestigious awards given to the best work of fiction translated into English. El ruido de las cosas al caer, by Juan Gabriel Vasquez (winner of the Alfaguara in 2011), has been a finalist in the prestigious Medicis and Femina awards.

The success of the Alfaguara Prize during these past 15 years has spread far beyond the borders of Spanish, as evidenced by the fact that all winning works have been translated into other languages. El ruido de las cosas al caer by Juan Gabriel Vasquez, last year's winner, has been sold to publishers Seuil in France, and Ponte all Grazie in Italy. These last two publishers have also purchased last year's prizewinner, Una misma noche, by Leopoldo Brizuela. More than ten international publishers, including Mondadori in Italy, and Signatuur in the Netherlands, have purchased the rights to El arte de la resurreccion, by Hernan Rivera Letelier. El viajero del siglo, by Andres Neuman, has been one of the most translated novels, and will be published by the prestigious Farrar, Straus & Giroux in the U.S. One of the works with the greatest international impact was Mira si yo te querre by Luis Leante (winner in 2007). In total, the rights to this novel have been sold in 21 countries so far, including the UK, Germany, Brazil, China, Korea, France, Italy, Russia, and Turkey.