November 7, 2023.- The jury of the Prize of Literature in Spanish Language Miguel de Cervantes has awarded Luis Mateo Díez the Cervantes Prize 2023. Awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the award is worth 125,000 euros.
The Jury’s decision was announced by the Minister of Culture and Sport, Miquel Iceta, accompanied by the Director General of the Book, Comic and Reading of the Ministry of Culture and Sport, María José Gálvez, at an event held in the Auditorium of the Ministry of Culture and Sport after the jury meeting.
The jury awarded the prize to Luis Mateo Díez for “being one of the great narrators of the Castilian language, heir to the Cervantine spirit, writer in the face of all adversity, creator of imaginary worlds and territories”.
“With a prose, a shrewdness and a style that make him singular in the literary consideration of the highest flight, Luis Mateo Díez surprises and offers continuous and new challenges with which he crosses the field of fantasy and acquires reality in readers, who appropriate their creative universe. In his creations stand out the expertise and indisputable mastery of language, which the author accredits in a scripture in which he masterfully mixes the cult and the popular. A style of its own, demanding, of great originality, where the expressionist, parodic or sperpentric humor prevails as the best spring to relativize what happens, and which brings a lucid and ambiguous perspective that allows us to verify the complexity of the human condition”, the jury acknowledged.
Jury
The jury was chaired by Santiago Muñoz Machado, representative of the Royal Spanish Academy.
The jury has also been formed by the following members: Luisa Campuzano I felt, for the Cuban Academy of Language; Antonio Lorente Medina, for the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE); Laurette Godinas, for the Union of Latin American Universities (UDUAL); Javier Rioyo Jambrina, for the Instituto Cervantes; Raquel Lanseros Sánchez, for the Ministry of Culture and Sport; María Jesús Chao Álvarez de Sierra, for the Federation of Journalists of Spain (Laureate)
Biography
Luis Mateo Díez (León, 1942) is one of the most prolific writers on the Spanish literary scene. In addition to his two poetic books, he has a narrative, autobiographical and essayist work that has been the subject of important narrative awards. Two-time Critics’ Prize and National Narrative Prize, Francisco Umbral Prize and Café Gijón Prize, among others. In 2020 he was awarded the National Award for Spanish Literature.
Among his most outstanding works are “The Provincial Seasons” (1982), “The Fountain of Age” (1986), the stories collected in “August Coals,” “The Full Hours” (1990), “The Record of the Shipwreck” (1992), “The Spirit of the Moor” (1996), the autobiographical “Days of the Attic” (1997), in essay “The Future of Fiction” (1999), the stories “The Lessons of Things” (2004 Miguel Delibes Prize) or the more than eighty stories collected in “Vicisitudes” (2018). His latest novels are “The Sidereal Elders” of 2020 and “My Crimes as a Companion Animal” of 2022.
Award history
Through the award of this prize, endowed with 125,000 euros, public testimony of admiration is given annually to the figure of a writer who, with the whole of his work, has contributed to enriching the Hispanic literary legacy.
The Cervantes Prize can be awarded to any author whose literary work is written entirely, or in part essentially, in Spanish. The candidates for the Prize can be presented by the Spanish Language Academies, the authors awarded in previous calls, the institutions that, by their nature, purposes or contents, are linked to literature in the Spanish language and the members of the Jury.
The list of winners is clear evidence of the significance of the Prize for culture in the Spanish language:
- 1976 Jorge Guillén
- 1977 Alejo Carpentier
- 1978 Damaso Alonso
- 1979 Jorge Luis Borges and Gerardo Diego
- 1980 Juan Carlos Onetti
- 1981 Octavio Paz
- 1982 Luis Rosales
- 1983 Rafael Alberti
- 1984 Ernesto Sábato
- 1985 Gonzalo Torrente Ballester
- 1986 Antonio Buero Vallejo
- 1987 Carlos Fuentes
- 1988 Maria Zambrano
- 1989 Augusto Roa Bastos
- 1990 Adolfo Bioy Casares
- 1991 Francisco Ayala
- 1992 Dulce María Loynaz
- 1993 Miguel Delibes
- 1994 Mario Vargas Llosa
- 1995 Camilo José Cela
- 1996 José García Nieto
- 1997 Guillermo Cabrera Infante
- 1998 José Hierro
- 1999 Jorge Edwards
- 2000 Francisco Umbro
- 2001 Álvaro Mutis
- 2002 José Jiménez Lozano
- 2003 Gonzalo Rojas
- 2004 Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio
- 2005 Sergio Pitol
- 2006 Antonio Gamoneda
- 2007 Juan Gelman
- 2008 Juan Marsé
- 2009 José Emilio Pacheco
- 2010 Ana María Matute
- 2011 Nicanor Parra
- 2012 José Manuel Caballero Bonald
- 2013 Elena Poniatowska
- 2014 Juan Goytisolo Gay
- 2015 Fernando del Paso
- 2016 Eduardo Mendoza
- 2017 Sergio Ramírez
- 2018 Ida Vitale
- 2019 Joan Margarit
- 2020 Francisco Brines
- 2021 Cristina Peri Rossi
- 2022 Rafael Cadena
- 2023 Luis Mateo Díez