Casa de las Americas literary award opens in Cuba

Havana-based Casa de las Americas Literary Award’s program kicks off Monday with the jury and a speech by Venezuelan poet Gustavo Pereira.

The 63rd edition of the event, with 480 works in competition, will last until April 28, marking the 64th anniversary of the founding of that Cuban cultural institution.

Talks with writers Telma Luzzani (Argentina), Cristian Valencia (Colombia), and Ricardo Riveron (Cuba) will take place at the Manuel Galich Hall of the Havana institution on Tuesday at 15:00 hours, local time.

The book “En Prensa (1955-1976)” by Haroldo Conti and the poetry collection “La excepcional belleza del verano” by Luis Lorente (Cuba), winner of the 2022 Casa de las Americas Literary Award, will also be launched.

The book “Diario de las revelaciones” by Venezuelan poet Gustavo Pereira, who will give a reading of his texts, will receive the José Lezama Lima Poetry Prize this Tuesday at 17:30 hours, local time.

Cuban essayist Jorge Fornet, director of the Casa de las Americas Literary Research Center and Casa de las Americas’ magazine, told reporters that this edition of the Prize, the oldest in Latin America, has 353 texts in the Short Story category and 96 in Testimony category, which he said, is a record number of participants.

Book launchings, talks, and meetings with writers will continue until Friday, April 28.

The piece “Allí donde la luz” by Cuban musician Jose Maria Vitier will be premiered in a concert devoted to the 100th anniversaries of Casa de las Americas founder Haydee Santamaria and to intellectual Fina Garcia Marruz.

Works deserving awards will be in four categories: Short stories, Testimonial literature, Studies on the black presence in contemporary America and the Caribbean, Brazilian literature, and fiction.

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