Cuban Writer Wins Federico Garcia Lorca Poetry Award

Madrid, Oct 13. -Cuban writer Fina Garcia Marruz was awarded the 8th Federico Garcia Lorca International Poetry Prize by the city of Granada, Spain, a recognition to the collection of poems.Granada's Mayor Jose Torres Hurtado made public the jury's decision during a press conference, recognizing Garcia Marruz (Havana, 1923) as one of the most important authors of the Spanish American literature in the 20th century.

Members of the jury highlighted the Cuban poet's reflective, intense, and passionate tone, as well as her mastery of the language.

Apart from her outstanding work as poet, they praised her research work about the Cuban literature, from institutions such as the Jose Marti National Library and the Center of Studies of Jose Marti.

Marruz competed along with another 40 candidates, most of them Latin American writers.

Considered one of the most outstanding Cuban poets and essayists, Garcia Marruz was awarded the Queen Sophia Prize for Ibero-American Poetry in April, one of the most important and prestigious awards in the genre.

She won the 1990 National Literature Prize, and has received such distinctions as the Alejo Carpetier Order, and the Fernando Ortiz Medal, and the one for the 30th anniversary of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, among others.

García Marruz is the third woman who has won the Federico Garcia Poetry Prize, after Spanish writer Maria Victoria Atencia (2010), and Peruvian Blanca Valera (2006). (Prensa Latina)