MIAMI, United States. – The Cuban novelist Leonardo Padura received this Monday the Pepe Carvalho International Black Novel Prize, awarded at the 18th edition of the BCNegra festival in Barcelona, and in recognition of his literary career, according to reported EFE.
Padura, recipient of the National Prize for Literature of Cuba and the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature 2015is constantly recognized for his extensive novelistic work.
At the beginning of this year, the Spanish daily The country elected his novel decent people as one of the 50 best books of 2022.
Although he is the living Cuban writer with the greatest international recognition, Padura has denounced that on the Island there is “a process of making his work invisible” because no news of his presentations is given.
“I am a National Literature Award winner, although I am a writer who is never talked about in the Cuban media or is talked about very little, I spent 10 years without appearing on television,” said the renowned writer to the Argentine newspaper Clarion.
In this sense, he added: “There is a process of making my work invisible, because there is no news of my presentations in Cuba. Officially no one has known that he has published this book [Personas decentes] and I am the only Cuban writer with a Princess of Asturias award, which should be significant. It is a very complex situation and the most painful thing is that access to my books is precisely more complicated in the country where I would like them to circulate more and better”.
The writer also recounted that by publishing in Cuba The man who loved the dogs He believed that he was witnessing an event that he never thought he would attend. However, the novel was presented, won the Critics’ Award, and the following year the author received the National Literature Award.
“It is a very strange situation because sometimes the strict logic that a consequence of causes and effects could have is not fulfilled,” said the creator of Mario Conde.
