2024-09-11 13:49:34
The essayist also received the highest award in local literature and joins women such as Gabriela Mistral, Isabel Allende and Marcela Paz, among others.
Elvira Hernandez was crowned the winner of the National Literature Award 2024 and with this it became the second poetess in achieving this achievement after Gabriela Mistral.
The award is one of the highest recognitions in our country, where national artists are recognized for their excellence, creativity and contribution to national culture.
“I would also like to thank those who nominated me, my editors and above all my readers, who have the last word when something has been written. They are the ones who give it life. Works remain alive as long as they are read, so I am deeply grateful for this award because it is an honour for me,” said the author, upon learning of the unanimous decision.
For her part, the Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage, Carolina Arredondo, After the announcement, he took the opportunity to make a phone call in which the president Gabriel Boric He extended a few words to the winner.
“Dear Elvira, my respects and you cannot imagine the joy that this award that you so well deserve gives me. Unfortunately and unfairly, so few women have been awarded and your work stands out among so many. I have been reading you for a long time. Congratulations, may your poetry reach every corner of Chile and may poetry continue to live on”said the president.
Who is Elvira Hernández, the winner of the 2024 National Literature Prize?
Elvira Hernandez It is a Chilean essayist and poet who at 73 years old became the winner of the National Literature Award in the 2024 edition.
She is the sixth woman in obtaining the precious award that previously went to Gabriela Mistral (1951), Marta Brunet (1961), Marcela Paz (1982), Isabel Allende (2010) and Diamela Eltit (2018). In this way, it is the second poetess in receiving recognition after Mistral.
Hernández has published 17 books of poetry, including titles such as The flag of Chile (finished writing in 1981. Although it circulated clandestinely in Chile and was published 10 years later); ¡Arre!, Halley, ¡Arre! (1986); The order of the days (1991) y Birds from my window (2018), among others.
We congratulate Elvira Hernández, winner of the National Literature Prize, whose work illuminates the writing of the new literary generations who recognize her as a great reference in the modulation of poetry of the present and the future 👏🏼👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/lYn0fW4sel
— Ministry of Cultures (@culturas_cl) September 4, 2024