Manuel Rivas has been awarded the 2024 National Prize for Spanish Literature. The jury has highlighted the author for “the extraordinary narrative quality that combines emotional strength and formal beauty and for the solidity of a versatile and coherent career built with sensitivity and defense of historical memory, social responsibility and the Galician language. Few authors on the Spanish literary scene, based on a firm commitment to their language, have managed to achieve such worldwide recognition.”
Furthermore, the jury has noted that her work “accompanies her activism, with a pen that, without indoctrination, stirs consciences, induces reflection and stimulates thinking towards the defense of linguistic and cultural plurality and towards gender equality. Manuel Rivas, with a powerful and singular voice, creates literature and, with it, once again places Galician writing on the Olympus of National Letters.”
The prize, awarded by the Ministry of Culture, is worth 50,000 euros. It distinguishes the set of literary work, in any of the Spanish languages, of a Spanish author, whose work is considered an integral part of the set of current Spanish literature. In its last edition, the award recognized Cristina Fernández Cubas, joining a long list of winners, among whom are Luis Landero, Rosa Montero, José María Merino Sánchez, Luis Mateo Díez, Francisca Aguirre and Bernardo Atxaga, among others.
Manuel Rivas (A Coruña, 1957) is, in addition to being a narrator, poet and essayist, a member of the Royal Galician Academy. His work in the Galician media and in the rest of the Spanish state stands out, covering both the direction of newspapers (such as the magazine ‘Luzes’), and columnism in newspapers such as El País or La Voz de Galicia. As a narrator, his short story books ‘A Million Cows’ (1989), Spanish Critics Award, ‘In Wild Company’ (1993), Galician Critics Award, ‘What Do You Want Me, Love?’ stand out. (1995), Torrente Ballester Award and National Narrative Award, ‘The carpenter’s pencil’ (1998), Spanish Critics’ Award, ‘Los libros arden mal’ (2006), Spanish Critics’ Award and Galicia and ‘The last day of Newfoundland’ (2015).
In the field of poetry he has written works such as ‘Balada en las playas del Oeste’ (1985), ‘Mohicania’ (1986), ‘No Swan’ (1989), Leliadoura Award, ‘Costa da Morte blues’ (1995), ‘The town of the night’ (1996) or ‘The disappearance of the snow’ (2009), the latter published simultaneously in all the co-official languages of the Spanish state. Much of this production is collected in the volume ‘From the known to the unknown. Poetic work (1980-2003)’ (2003). The latest collection of poems to appear is ‘La boca de la tierra’ (2015). Manuel Rivas has been translated into different languages, he has received numerous awards for his journalistic and literary career, and some of his best-known works have been made into films.
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