Today, Juan Goytisolo Gay was awarded with the Cervantes Prize of 2014 for Literature in the Spanish Language. The jury’s decision was announced by the Minister of Education, Culture and Sports, José Ignacio Wert, during an event held at the headquarters of the State Secretariat of Culture.

The jury, as stated in the official award announcement, granted him the prize “for his ability to delve into the language and complex stylistic proposals, which he has developed in a wide range of literary genres; for his desire to further integrate on both shores of the Mediterranean and in Spanish heterodox tradition, and for his ongoing commitment to intercultural dialogue.” 

The jury’s members were José Manuel Caballero Bonald, the author who won the prize in 2012; Elena Poniatowska, the author who won the prize in 2013; Soledad Puértolas Villanueva, designated by the Spanish Royal Academy; Inmaculada Lergo Martín, for the Peruvian Academy of Language; Fernando Galván Reula, for the Conference of Spanish University Rectors (CRUE); Carmen de Benavides, for the Union of Latin American Universities (UDUAL); Julio Martínez Mesanza, for the director of the Cervantes Institute; Mercedes Monmany, for the Minister of Education, Culture and Sports; Fernando Segú y Martín, for the Federation of Journalists’ Associations of Spain (FAPE); Jaime Reynaldo Iturri Salmón, for the Latin American Journalists’ Federation (FELAP), and Elizabeth Marcela Pettinaroli, for the International Association of Hispanists.

Teresa Lizaranzu, the Director General of Culture and Book Policy and Industries, acted as the secretary (able to speak, but holding no vote), and acting as the secretary of the award record (able to speak, but holding no vote) was the Assistant Director General for the Promotion of Books, Reading and Spanish Letters.

 Biography

Juan Goytisolo Gay (Barcelona, 1931) has lived outside of Spain since a very young age: in 1956, he settled in Paris, where he worked as a literary advisor for the Gallimard publishing firm; in 1969, he moved to the United States, where he became a professor at the University of California, San Diego; and he then went to both Boston and New York. He currently resides in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Goytisolo forms part of the International Parliament of Writers and is the Chairman of the UNESCO jury which selects the Masterpieces of Mankind’s Oral and Immaterial Heritage. A scholar with great knowledge of the Arab world. Through his articles and essays he has contributed to increasing awareness in Europe about the reality of these peoples. He has worked towards getting UNESCO to declare Jemaa-el-Fna Square in Marrakesh a World Oral Heritage Site.

His earliest novels, Juegos de manos (The Young Assassins, 1954), Duelo en el paraíso (Duel in Paradise, 1955), and the trilogy made up of El circo (The Circus, 1957), Fiestas (1958) and La resaca (1958), are considered to be examples of critical realism. As of the trilogy made up of Señas de identidad (Marks of Identity), Reivindicación del conde don Julián (Count Julian, now referred to as Don Julián) and Juan sin Tierra (Juan the Landless), a breaking point was produced in the Spanish literary tradition existing up to that time. Since then, he has never ceased exploring new paths and has published novels such as Makbara, Paisajes después de la batalla (Landscapes After the Battle), Las virtudes del pájaro solitario (The Virtues of the Solitary Bird), La cuarentena (Quarantine), La saga de los Marx (The Marx Family Saga), El sitio de los sitios (State of Siege), Carajicomedia (A Cock-eyed Comedy) and Telón de boca (The Blind Rider). In the eighties, he published his two autobiographic novels, Coto vedado (Forbidden Territory) and En los reinos de taifa (Realms of Strife).  He is also the author of essays including El furgón de cola, Blanco White, Contracorrientes, Crónicas sarracinas (Saracen Chronicles) and Aproximaciones a Gaudí en Capadocia (Approaches to Gaudí in Cappadocia). 

His numerous contributions in the field of journalism have been collected in Pájaro que ensucia su propio nido (Bird Which Dirties Its Own Nest) and Contra las sagradas formas (Against Sacred Forms). He lived the conflicts in Bosnia and Chechnya up close, between the years of 1993 and 1996, which he translated into a series of reports published in the newspaper El País.

In addition to other awards he received the Octavio Paz Essay and Poetry Prize in 2002, the Juan Rulfo Prize in 2004, the National Prize for Spanish Letters in 2008, the Tres Culturas Foundation Prize for Arts and Cultures in 2009 and the Quijote Award for Spanish Letters for his life’s work, given by Spain’s Collegiate Association of Writers (ACE) in 2010.

Most of his works have been translated into several languages: English, French, German, Polish, Slovakian, Romanian, etc.

By giving this Prize, which comes with an award of 125,000 euros, each year a public homage of admiration is paid to a writer who has contributed to enriching the Spanish language’s literary legacy through his or her work as a whole.

The Cervantes Prize may be awarded to any author whose literary work is written fully essentially in Spanish. The candidates for the Prize may be proposed by the Academies of the Spanish Language, those authors who have received the Prize on prior occasions, those institutions which, due to their very nature, purpose or contents, are related with literature in the Spanish language, and members of the Jury.

The list of Prize winners clearly bears witness to the significance of the Prize in terms of culture in the Spanish language:

1976    Jorge Guillén 

1977    Alejo Carpentier

1978    Dámaso 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 Umbral

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