The Casa de las Américas Prize (Premio Literario Casa de las Américas) is a literary award given out by the Cuban Casa de las Américas. It was started in 1959 and is one of the oldest and most important literary prizes in Latin America.
The award is given for books written in Spanish, Portuguese, English, and French by authors from Latin America and the Caribbean. Along with the main categories of fiction, poetry, and essays, it also has categories for narrative and children's literature.
History
The award was created in 1959 as the Hispanic American Literary Competition (Concurso Literario Hispanoamericano). It was designed as a Latin American version of the British Booker Prize and the U.S. Pulitzer Prize. In 1964, the name was changed to the Latin American Literary Competition (Concurso Literario Latinoamericano), and it has used its current name since 1965.
Since 1960, the main categories have included novels, poetry, short stories, drama, and essays written in Spanish. In 1970, a new category for stories based on real experiences was added. In 1973, the essay and testimonial categories were expanded to include works in Portuguese by Brazilian authors. A category for children’s literature was added in 1975. Since 1976, works by Caribbean authors in English have been eligible in all fiction categories, and since 1978, works by Caribbean authors in French have been eligible in all fiction categories. Since 1978, works by Brazilian authors in Portuguese have been eligible in all categories. In 2000, three special awards were created for narrative, essay, and poetry.
Because the number of categories and genres has grown, some awards are given in alternate years, and not all categories receive awards every year.
Winners
The juries for the awards are made up of well-known writers, scholars, and thinkers from across Latin America.
Many scholars and writers who have won the prize include Edward Brathwaite, Humberto Costantini, Beatriz Doumerc, Eduardo Galeano, Renato Prada Oropeza, Susana Rotker, Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique, Françoise Perus, Beatriz González-Stephan, Anthony Phelps, Luis Britto García, Diego Falconí, and Abel Sierra Madero. Some of these winners were not well known before winning, but now their work is widely read and translated into many languages, such as Jorge Enrique Adoum and Roque Dalton.
The Casa de las Américas Prize has helped bring international attention to Latin American literature. It also played a role in a major growth period for literature, which led to writers like Pablo Neruda receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971 and Gabriel García Márquez receiving it in 1982.