 Daína
Chaviano obtained the Goliardos International Prize, an annual award given
by Mexican authors and essayists of that association to creative authors
of international renown who have distinguished themselves within the fantasy
genre.
According
to the event's organizers, the prize in Chaviano's case stands as recognition
of her importance and trajectory as a fantasy author, and also specifically
for her novel Fábulas de una abuela extraterrestre, already
considered a classic in Hispanic science fiction, now published in Mexico
for the first time.
Chaviano's
work has been compared to that of authors like Ursula K. LeGuin and Angelica
Gorodischer for the universal character of its esthetic and philosophical
values.
The author,
who was born in Cuba and currently lives in the US, was in Mexico for the
presentation of Fábulas de una abuela extraterrestre (Editorial
Oceano) when she got the news of the award.
Fábulas
de una abuela extraterrestre was published for the first time in Cuba
in 1988, and it became the largest bestseller there that year. Shortly
after, the novel was translated into German and was awarded the Anna Seghers
Prize by the Berlin Academy of Arts. Now it is being published for the
first time for the international Hispanic reader.
The novel
was launched at the Auditorio José Martí, in the Historic
Center of Mexico City. María del Socorro Martínez, in charge
of promotion and publicity at Editorial Oceano, introduced the panel, made
up of author Alberto Ruy Sánchez, who wrote Los jardines secretos
de Mogador and Los Nombres del Aire, among others; H. Pascal,
founder of the Goliardos Project; and the researcher and essayist Miguel
Angel Fernández.[click
here for his speech in Spanish].
The awards ceremony of
the International Goliardos Award took place at the Universidad del Altiplano,
Tlaxcala, before a large public made up of both students and academicians,
whose questions prolonged the event well beyond the time originally planned.
The act was presided by authors Alejandro Rosete, Gerardo Horacio Porcayo
y H. Pascal, members of the Goliardos Project.
This time the prize was
en engraving by artist Rafael Cázares, internationally renowned
by his exhibitions and works in Germany, India, France and other countries,
and it was presented by author Susana Martínez, director of the
Universidad del Altiplano, and by H.Pascal, general coordinator of the
Goliardos Project.
The Goliardos International Award was initiated five years ago and is given
during one of the two Festivals of Fiction and Fantasy celebrated
in Mexico. Among other recipients: Guy Gavriel Kay, a Canadian author who
collected the unpublished data that made up The Silmarillion, by
J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings; Christa Faust,
for her work on American neogothic; Alejandro Jodorowsky, for his vanguard
cinematography; David Schow, who wrote the screenplay for The Raven;
Poppy Z. Brite, for his novel Lost Souls; Gerardo Porcayo, founder
of cyberpunk in Hispanic America and one of the founders of Mexican neogothic;
Miguel Angel Fernández, for his research on Mexican science fiction;
and others.
This ceremony
concluded the 11th International Festival of Fantasy and Science Fiction,
March 2003.
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