Havana, Dec 29 (Prensa Latina) Chilean writer, Gonzalo Rojas, one of
the great Latin American poets of the 20th century will inaugurate the
Casa de las Americas 2008 Prize on January 21, sources of the
institution told Prensa Latina.
Rojas who will be 90 a day before will be the special guest
to this event, considered one of the most prestigious in the area,
founded in 1959 by Haydee Santamaria.
Twenty one writers and literature scholars will be in charge
of selecting the award winning works from January 21 to 31, reviewing
the selections in the fields of poetry, story, essay of
historical-social subjects, Caribbean literature in French or Creole
and Brazilian literature.
In the latter category non-fiction works written in
Portuguese and published in this language during 2006-2007 will be
competing.
The jury is made up as follows:
Poetry: Juan Manuel Roca (Colombia); Jorge Boccanera
(Argentina); Gustavo Pereira (Venezuela), Carmen Berenguer (Chile) and
Alex Pausides (Cuba).
Story: Mario Bellatín (Peru-Mexico);
Luis López Nieves
(Puerto Rico), Humberto Mata (Venezuela), Francisco Proaño (Ecuador) and María Elena Llana (Cuba).
Historical and sociological Essay: Guillermo Castro
(Panama), Ana Ester Ceceña (Mexico), Frabk Hinkelammert (Germany-Costa
Rica), Jorge Mansilla Torres (Bolivia) and Mayra Espinosa (Cuba).
Brazilian literature: Jose Luis Jobim, Rizardo Rezende and Livia Reis, from Brazil.
Caribbean literature in French and Creole: Roger Toumson
(Guadalupe), Francoise Moulin (France) and Rafael Rodriguez Beltran
(Cuba).
The decision will be given on January 31 in the Che Guevara Hall of Casa de las Americas.
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