Fernando del Paso Wins FIL’s Literature Award

By A�da Bardales -- Críticas, 9/1/2007

Fernando del Paso, Courtesy of FIL Guadalajara & Joaquín Rúa

On Monday, September 3, the Mexican novelist Fernando del Paso was named this year’s recipient of the renowned Premio FIL de Literatura, formerly Premio de Literatura Latinoamericana y del Caribe Juan Rulfo. The jury voted unanimously to award the prestigious author because of the “revival of the Spanish language his work undertakes and the recovery of the historic memory it entails.” The prize, which consists of US$100,000, will be presented to the author on November 24 during the Feria Internacional del Libro (FIL) de Guadalajara’s (Guadalajara’s International Book Fair) inaugural ceremony.

Considered one of the most important Latin American novelists of our times, Del Paso is also an essayist, dramatist, and journalist. He is the author of one of the most significant literary trilogies in Latin American literature: José Trigo, Palinuro de México (Palinuro of Mexico), and Noticias del Imperio (News from the Empire). Published between 1966 and1986, each award-winning novel took the author ten years to complete and is considered a milestone in Latin American literature.

In their official announcement, the jury, which was comprised of Mexico’s Gonzalo Celorio and Rubén Gallo, Venezuela’s Gustavo Guerrero, the United States’ Suzanne Jill Levine, Peru’s Julio Orgeta, Spain’s Beatriz Pastor, and England’s William Rowe, praised Del Paso for "forging new narrative forms and experimenting with multiple literary resources," adding that Noticias del Imperio was one of the most important historical novels of the 20th century.