This Monday, Nicaraguan poet Gioconda Belli was awarded in Spain the Prestigious Queen Sofia Prize for Ibero-American Poetry, considered one of the most important prizes in the field of poetry in Spanish and Portuguese, as announced by the institutions in charge of awarding it. The jury selected her among 49 candidates for her expressive creativity, her poetic freedom, and her courage, as well as for her significance in Nicaragua’s contemporary culture, the University of Salamanca and Patrimonio Nacional said in a statement.
Gioconda Belli, a renowned Central American writer, has had an outstanding presence in the development of contemporary literature in the last 50 years, according to the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis GarcÃa Montero, quoted in the statement. The prize, which has been awarded since 1992, has a monetary endowment of 42,000 euros (approximately 45,000 dollars).
Born in Managua in 1948, Belli began publishing poems in the 1970s and has since written several books of poetry, including “De la costilla de Eva” (1986) and “El pez rojo que nada en el pecho” (2019). In addition to her role as a poet, Belli defines herself as a novelist, feminist, and humanist and has written eight novels in her literary career.
It is worth mentioning that Belli currently resides in Spain and was part of a group of more than 300 Nicaraguan opponents whose nationality was withdrawn by the government of Daniel Ortega last February. In response to this decision by Managua, which also affected writer Sergio RamÃrez, Belli responded with a poem published on her Twitter account, where she expresses her discontent and her commitment to the struggle for justice and freedom.