Javier Velaza (Tudela, 1963) won the XXXVII Loewe International Poetry Prize for the work “Les Ignorances”while the Young Creation prize was awarded to the Peruvian company Omar Castro Villalobos for ‘Individual room’, reported this Tuesday during a press conference the Loewe Foundation.
The winner will receive a price of 30,000 euroswhile Castro Villalobos (Lima, 1992) will receive 12,000 euros for the price of his young creation. Both were chosen from 35 finalists.
In all 2,260 manuscripts from 39 countries were submitted In this edition, more than a quarter of those under 33, which were analyzed by a jury chaired by Víctor García de la Concha and integrated, among others, by Gioconda Belli, Carme Riera, Luis Antonio de Villena and Diego Roel, winner of the previous edition.
According to the jury, “Les Ignorances” is a book”classic but modern“, written with an “absolute mastery of rhythm and versification”, as well as “a high moral content, with a very connected and solidly constructed architecture, which gives it a resounding firmness”.
Javier Velaza is a professor of Latin Philology and Dean of the Faculty of Philology and Communication of the University of Barcelonaand is the author of seven collections of poems, including “Mar de amores y latines”.
For its part, “Individual room”, by Omar Castro Villalobosis, according to the jury, “a book of its time, written with a language that is both free and rigorous, where the scenography of everyday life is transformed into a cultural allegory”.
María Negroni, member of the jury, emphasized that “the poet manages to include in his particular vision of the city of Lima a rarely seen political and social critique, where gender is not divorced from poverty or inequality from generational concerns.
The awards ceremony and the presentation of the books, which will be published in Poetry Viewer Collectionwill take place in March 2025.
55% of participants in this edition come from Latin America (notably Argentina, Mexico and Colombia). In Spain, the provinces with the most works presented are Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Alicante.
