The Mexican narrator and essayist Gonzalo Celorio has been awarded the 2025 Miguel de Cervantes Prize for Literature in the Spanish Language, the most prestigious award in Spanish literature, worth 125,000 euros. The announcement was made this Monday by the Spanish Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, at an event held at the Jorge Semprún Auditorium.
The jury recognized Celorio for “the exceptional literary work and intellectual work with which he has contributed in a profound and sustained manner to the enrichment of the Hispanic language and culture.”
According to the ruling, he has consolidated a literary voice of notable elegance and reflective depth in which he combines critical lucidity with a narrative sensitivity that explores the nuances of identity, sentimental education and loss.
The jury highlighted that “irony, tenderness and erudition resonate in his books, drawing an emotional and cultural map that has influenced generations of readers and writers.”
Born in Mexico City in 1948, Celorio is the author of novels such as Self-love (1992), And the earth trembles in its centers (1999) and the trilogy An exemplary family, formed by Three pretty Cuban women (2006), metal and slag (2014) and The apostates (2020). He has also written important essays such as The sedentary journey (1994) and Memory lies (2022).
Since 1974 he has been a professor of literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where he holds the Chair of Masters of Spanish Exile. In 2019 he was elected director of the Mexican Academy of Language.
His career has been distinguished with numerous recognitions, such as the Prix des Deux Océans (1997), the IMPAC-CONARTE-ITESM National Novel Prize (1999), the National Prize for Sciences and Arts in Linguistics and Literature (2010), the Mazatlán Prize for Literature (2015) and the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize of Writers for Writers (2023).
This award marks a return of Cervantes to Latin American letters after two consecutive years in which it went to Spanish authors: Álvaro Pombo in 2024 and Luis Mateo Díez in 2023. With this designation, Celorio becomes the twenty-third Latin American author to receive this prestigious recognition since its creation in 1976.
The delivery ceremony will be held on April 23, 2026, coinciding with the anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes, in the Auditorium of the University of Alcalá de Henares.
