Miguel de Cervantes Prize

The Miguel de Cervantes Prize (Spanish: Premio de Literatura en Lengua Castellana Miguel de Cervantes) is awarded annually to honour the lifetime achievement of an outstanding writer in the Spanish language.

Miguel de Cervantes Prize
Medal of the Miguel de Cervantes Prize
CountrySpain
Presented byMinistry of Culture
Reward(s)€125,000
First awarded1976
WebsiteCervantesPresentacion

History

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The prize was established in 1975 by the Ministry of Culture of Spain and first awarded the following year.[1] The Encyclopædia Britannica calls it "most prestigious and remunerative award given for Spanish-language literature".[1] The winner receives a monetary award of 125,000 euros, which makes it one of the richest literary prizes in the world.[2] The prize rewards authors from any Spanish-speaking nation and recognizes the recipient's overall body of work.[1] Of the forty-seven prizes awarded in the history of the Cervantes Prize, only six have ever been awarded to women. In 1988, the Spanish writer María Zambrano (1904-1991) was the first female writer to be honored. The award is named after Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote.[2] The candidates are proposed by the Association of Spanish Language Academies (i.e., the Royal Spanish Academy).[3]

As of the presentation of the 2024 award to Álvaro Pombo, the recipients have been recognized for their writing of novels, poetry, short stories, essays, translations, philosophy or dramas – or for combinations thereof. With two winners in 1979, there have been 50 recipients of the Miguel de Cervantes Prize.

The Cervantes Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature

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Three of the 50 winners of the Miguel de Cervantes Prize have also won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Octavio Paz (Cervantes 1981, Nobel 1990) and Mario Vargas Llosa (Cervantes 1994, Nobel 2010), were awarded the Nobel Prize in subsequent years, while Camilo José Cela received the Nobel Prize in 1989 and was awarded the Cervantes Prize in 1995.

Laureates

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The list of winners is available at the official Premio 'Miguel Cervantes' website.[4]

Year Picture Winner Country Genre(s)
1976   Jorge Guillén   Spain poetry
1977   Alejo Carpentier   Cuba novel, essay
1978   Dámaso Alonso   Spain poetry
1979[5]   Jorge Luis Borges   Argentina short story, poetry, essay, translation
  Gerardo Diego   Spain poetry
1980   Juan Carlos Onetti   Uruguay novel
1981   Octavio Paz   Mexico poetry, essay
1982 Luis Rosales   Spain poetry, essay
1983   Rafael Alberti   Spain poetry
1984   Ernesto Sabato   Argentina novel, essay
1985   Gonzalo Torrente Ballester   Spain novel
1986   Antonio Buero Vallejo   Spain drama
1987   Carlos Fuentes   Mexico novel, essay
1988   María Zambrano   Spain philosophy, essay
1989   Augusto Roa Bastos   Paraguay novel
1990   Adolfo Bioy Casares   Argentina novel, short story
1991   Francisco Ayala   Spain novel, short story, essay, translation
1992   Dulce María Loynaz   Cuba poetry
1993   Miguel Delibes   Spain novel
1994   Mario Vargas Llosa   Peru novel, essay, short story, drama
1995   Camilo José Cela   Spain novel
1996 José García Nieto   Spain poetry
1997   Guillermo Cabrera Infante   Cuba novel
1998   José Hierro   Spain poetry
1999   Jorge Edwards   Chile novel
2000   Francisco Umbral   Spain novel, essay
2001   Álvaro Mutis   Colombia poetry, novel
2002   José Jiménez Lozano   Spain novel
2003   Gonzalo Rojas   Chile poetry
2004   Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio   Spain novel, essay
2005 Sergio Pitol   Mexico novel
2006   Antonio Gamoneda   Spain poetry
2007   Juan Gelman   Argentina poetry
2008   Juan Marsé   Spain novel
2009   José Emilio Pacheco   Mexico poetry, novel, short story
2010   Ana María Matute   Spain novel
2011   Nicanor Parra   Chile poetry
2012   José Manuel Caballero Bonald   Spain poetry, novel
2013   Elena Poniatowska   Mexico novel
2014   Juan Goytisolo   Spain novel, essay
2015   Fernando del Paso   Mexico novel, poetry, essay, drama, short story
2016   Eduardo Mendoza   Spain novel, drama
2017   Sergio Ramírez   Nicaragua novel, short story, essay
2018   Ida Vitale   Uruguay poetry, prose, essay
2019   Joan Margarit   Spain poetry
2020   Francisco Brines[6]   Spain poetry
2021   Cristina Peri Rossi   Uruguay prose, poetry, short story, translation
2022   Rafael Cadenas   Venezuela poetry, essay
2023 Luis Mateo Díez   Spain novel, essay
2024   Álvaro Pombo[7]   Spain novel, short story, poetry, essay

Laureates per country

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The following table shows the number of laureates per country:

Rank Country Laureates
1   Spain 26
2   Mexico 6
3   Argentina 4
4   Chile 3
4   Cuba 3
4   Uruguay 3
7   Colombia 1
7   Nicaragua 1
7   Paraguay 1
7   Peru 1
7   Venezuela 1
Total 50

Notes and references

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  1. ^ a b c "Cervantes Prize | award". Britannica.com. 2014-11-25. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  2. ^ a b Jonathan Wolfe (November 12, 2015). "Fernando del Paso Wins Miguel de Cervantes Prize". New York Times. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
  3. ^ "Miguel de Cervantes". donquijote.org. 2014. Archived from the original on 4 June 2023. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  4. ^ "Premio "Miguel de Cervantes"" (in Spanish). Spain: Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. Archived from the original on September 8, 2015. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
  5. ^ Two awarded in 1979
  6. ^ "Francisco Brines, premio Cervantes". lavanguardia.com. 2020-11-16. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
  7. ^ Fanjul, Sergio C.; Amat, Jordi (Nov 12, 2024). "El escritor español Álvaro Pombo gana el Premio Cervantes 2024". El País.
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