The Princess of Asturias Award for Letters in 2024 is named after Ana Blandiana (Timi?oara, 1942). The Romanian poet has been proclaimed the winner for “her writing, which “raises fundamental questions about the existence of human beings” and for her “extraordinary capacity for resistance in the face of censorship,” as the jury noted during a press conference. in Oviedo.
“It is difficult for me to express my emotion and gratitude for the great honor that the awarding of the Asturias Prize represents for me, especially because – as always when I receive a prize – I cannot help but remember Plato’s thought that recommended the coronation of poets with laurels and their expulsion from the city,” the essayist also thanked in a message in Spanish published on her Facebook account.
Blandiana, “a radically unique creator,” was one of the voices of freedom in Nicolae Ceaucescu’s Romania. It is for this reason that the author has confessed on more than one occasion that she does not believe in political correctness. She considers it a “dangerous” tool since, if an author does not manage to free himself from it, “poetry dies.”
In 1959, at only seventeen years old, she fully entered the literary world by publishing her first poem in the magazine Tribuna, which caused the government to put her in the spotlight and consider her “daughter of an enemy of the people.” Her father, an Orthodox priest, was imprisoned several times, and this resulted in her being denied access to university. That did not exempt her from continuing to write. In 1964, she published her first book of poems, First Person Plural, and achieved success two years later with The Third Sacrament.
At the same time, she worked as a librarian at the Bucharest Institute of Fine Arts and wrote for the magazines Viata Studenteasca and Amfiteatru, where she published some poems that have become icons of the fight against the communist dictatorship today. Her literature and poetry were “a salvation” throughout her life.
The Princess of Asturias Awards ceremony will be held in October. Each award is endowed with a sculpture by Joan Miró, an accrediting diploma, a badge and fifty thousand euros in cash.
The jury is composed of Santiago Muñoz Machado, in the capacity of president; Fernando Rodriguez Lafuente, as secretary; There are many ways to get the best results from your search results, but the most important thing is to find the right one for you Maria Pou Serra, Ana Santos Aramburo, Irene Vallejo Moreu and Juan Villoro Ruiz.
