Casa de las Americas Literary Awards Announced

HAVANA TIMES, Jan 27 — Argentinean writers picked up three literary laurels and two honorable mentions yesterday, while awards were also presented to authors from Haiti, Cuba, Brazil and the United States at the Casa de las Americas in Havana.

Argentinean writers Ignacio Apolo and Laura Gutmann won in theater with the book El tao del sexo; while in the competition of literature for children and young people, luck was on the side of Josefina Porcelli for her “Mi hermano llego de otro planeta un dia de mucho viento.”

In French or Creole Caribbean literature, the award went to Le sang et la mer, by Haitian writer Gary Victor, while Brazilian literature was distinguished by João Jose Reis, Flavio dos Santos Gomes and Mark J. M. de Carvalho for O alufa Rufino. Trafico, escravidão e liberdade no Atlântico negro (1822-1853)

The award for Latino studies in the United States went to Cristina Beltran for The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity, while the Cuban essayist Zuleica Romay won the Special Studies Award on the Black Presence in Latin America and Contemporary Caribbean with Elogio de la altea o las paradojas de la racialidad.

This year’s competition opened in February 2011 with 377 original competing, most from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Uruguay.