The IV International Poetry Prize ‘Ciudad de Estepona’ reaches record number of participants with more than 2,000 works submitted

The winning book of poems will receive 7,000 euros and will be published by Pre-Textos. The decision will be announced on May 2 in a ceremony that will include a recital by the poet Luis García Montero and a concert by La Bien Querida at the Felipe VI Auditorium.

The International Poetry Prize ‘City of Estepona’, organized by the City Council has reached record number of participants in its fourth edition with a total of 2,041 works submitted, half a thousand more than those registered last year. A flood of works that has exceeded expectations and supports the consolidation of a contest that with a few years of life is already among the most important of the national scene.

Proof of the interest generated by the award in this new edition is the list of countries from which original works have been sent: Germany, Portugal, England, Greece, United States, Canada, Japan, Morocco, Egypt, Belarus or Jordan, although the participation from Latin America has been notorious, having received works from almost all Latin American countries. The participation from Argentina, Cuba and Mexico was especially high. At the national level, works have come from all the Andalusian provinces and from all the autonomous communities.

This literary contest was born in 2021 as one of the most relevant that have been created in recent years in the national panorama, both for the economic endowment of the award and for its link to one of the most important publishers in the Spanish language. The winning work will receive a prize of 7,000 euros. The City Council has increased the amount for this fourth edition. In addition, the selected work will be published by the prestigious publishing house Pre-Textos, which has in its catalog authors such as Francisco Brines, Cervantes Prize 2020; Anne Carson, Princess of Asturias Award for Letters 2020; or Louise Glück, Nobel Prize for Literature 2020.

The mayor, José María García Urbano, has highlighted the commitment that the City Council has been making to promote culture, in all its artistic expressions, to link the name of the city to cultural projects of relevance, as well as to recognize and encourage literary creation.

The director of this contest, the poet and writer Alejandro Simón Partal, indicates that this poetry prize has been consolidated in a few years as one of the most desired by authors who write in Spanish anywhere in the world, as supported by the number of works submitted from other countries. In his opinion, “this international repercussion is motivated by the soul that we have put into this award and everything that revolves around it, since on the occasion of the award ceremony we organize educational activities for our young people and we take literature to the streets to promote reading, strengthen ties with culture in our city and celebrate life”.

After the deadline for the submission of the poems, the jury will now begin the reading of the works. The jury will be composed of members of recognized trajectory as Luis García Montero, poet and director of the Cervantes Institute; María Ángeles Pérez López, poet, professor at the University of Salamanca and member of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language and the poet and playwright Alberto Conejero, among other relevant names in Spanish literature.

The decision will be announced on May 2, the day on which this year will be celebrated the Poetry Day in Estepona, a day that will feature an extensive program of activities such as recitals, book presentations and conferences and will culminate at 20.00 pm with a recital by the poet Luis García Montero and the concert of La Bien Querida in the Felipe VI Auditorium.

Invitations are free and can be collected from April 17 at the Padre Manuel Cultural Center.