II Planeta-Casa de América Prize Goes to Chile’s Jorge Edwards

by Aída Bardales -- Críticas, 4/1/2008 8:56:00 AM

Foto: EFE Jorge Edwars (der.) ganó con la novela 'La casa de Dostoievsky' y Fernando Quiroz (izq.) quedó finalista con 'Justos por pecadores.'

On April 1, Chilean author Jorge Edwards, 76, was named winner of the second annual Premio Iberoamericano Planeta-Casa de América for La casa de Dostoievski (“Dostoyevsky’s House”). The winning work was selected from 557 manuscripts received from Spain and Latin America, and will receive US$200,000.

“[The novel] is about poetry, poets, and the desire to be a poet,” Edwards told the media, while crediting fellow Chileans Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral as important influences on his oeuvre. Edwards stated that the novel, which takes place in the 1950s, also centers on politics and love, includes autobiographical elements, and that the story is based on an old decrepit house inhabited by young poets and writers in Santiago that captured his imagination when he was young.

Author and jury member Álvaro Pombo highlighted the novel for recreating the poetic life of that era while also heavily criticizing the poets. Other jury members were authors Gioconda Belli and Masrcela Serrano, Casa de América director Miguel Barroso, and Planetals editorial director, Ignacio Iraola.

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