Winners of the Casa de las Americas Award 2022 Announced

The 62nd edition of the Casa de las Americas literary awards were granted this Friday. The literary awards returned this year after the pause forced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The anouncement only included the categories of novels, poetry and essays on historical and social themes.

RELATED:

New Seminar on Native, Afro Descendant and Latino Communities

The novel Hija de Nadie (Daughter of No One) (Javier Núñez, Argentina) and the poetry book Excepcional Belleza del Verano (Exceptional Summer Beauty) (Luis Lorente, Cuba) were amongst the most lauded.

Excepcional Belleza del Verano by Luis Lorente, was noted to stand out for its strength and beauty of the linked images that meander as a single and forceful poem.

Others in Poetry category, like Carolina Fernández (Peru), was awarded for her work Bordando Quilkas (Embroidering Quilkas) and Benjamín Chávez (Bolivia), for his text Para Alguna Vez Cuando Oscurece (For Sometime After Dark).

Press Media reported that in the historical-social essay category, the book Moneda y Malestar Social en Cuba (1790-1902) (Currency and Social Malaise in Cuba 1790-1902), by Jose Antonio Piqueras (Spain), was awarded.

According to the jurors, the novel Hija de Nadie "shows a good narrative pulse, great handling of dialogues and narrates, in a cinematographic tone, the dystopian story of two women who resist a harsh and cruel reality".

Press Media reported that in the historical-social essay category, the book Moneda y Malestar Social en Cuba (1790-1902) (Currency and Social Malaise in Cuba 1790-1902), by Jose Antonio Piqueras (Spain), was also lauded.

The jurors also expressed, Jose Antonio Piqueras' essay "delves, with rigor and profuse documentary and bibliographic material, into the complex relationship between capitalism and slavery, the class structure on the island (of Cuba) and the forms of discontent of various groups against foreign domination".

Despite the adverse health situation in the region, the works were sent in virtually. More than 1 600 entries were received, of which 150 were selected to identify the final winners.

The jury comprised of Ecuadorian publisher Santiago Vizcaino and narrators Dazra Novak (Cuba), Mayra Montero (Puerto Rico) and Claudia Apablaza (Chile), also members of the Novel jury.

While the essay jury comprised of Carlos Aguirre (Peru), Mario Santucho (Argentina) and Yoel Cordovi (Cuba); and the Poetry jury, Jorge Boccanera (Argentina), Rosa Chavez (Guatemala) and Basilia Papastamatíu (Cuba-Argentina).

The jurors of the Casa de las Americas Literary Award met last Thursday with the Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, who highlighted the work carried out by the institution to strengthen regional identity, the good reception of the Award despite the Covid-19 pandemic and the importance of the use of culture to counteract neoliberal paradigms.