The prestigious 2018 FIL Literary Award in Romance Languages has gone to 94-year-old Uruguayan writer and poet Ida Vitale, who lived in exile in Mexico for ten years following the military takeover in her country in 1974.
Vitale will accept the award on November 24 during the opening ceremonies of the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL), the world’s largest literary event for the general public.
“Magnificent and mindful of the human experience in her words and in what arises from these, her clear poetic voice, closely tied to the natural world, artistic expression, and the passing of time, is able to bring new life to tradition and affirm her place in the modern world,” stated the jury in their unanimous decision to grant her the award.
Carrying a purse of US$150,000, the FIL Literature Award recognizes a lifetime dedicated to literature. This year, 79 nominations were received from 17 countries representing 62 writers and six languages: Catalan, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian.
Vitale has collaborated with numerous newspapers and magazines, served on the advisory board for the magazine Vuelta and was part of the group that founded the daily newspaper Unomásuno. Some of the awards she has received include the Octavio Paz International Poetry and Essay Award, the International Alfonso Reyes Award, the Queen Sofia Ibero-American Poetry Award, and the Federico García Lorca and Max Jacob Awards for poetry.
Among her most outstanding works are “The Light of this Memory,” “Procurement of the Impossible,” “Dictionary of Affinities,” “Constancy’s Dreams” and “Each In His Own Night.”