MIAMI, United States.- The writer Daína Chaviano received one of the most coveted awards in the world of literature for children and young people granted by the Banco del Libro, reported this Wednesday The New Herald.
According to the newspaper, Chaviano, who lives in the United States, won the prize in the Youth category for “País de dragones”, a collection of stories that had won the National Prize for Literature for Children and Young People ‘The Golden Age’ in 1989, when I still lived in Cuba.
The book, which never reached readers on the island because it was censored when he decided to leave the country, was published for the first time in Venezuela thanks to Rondalera, a publisher that has since disappeared. It was later published in Spain under the Espasa Juvenil label. Twenty years later, the Norma Colombia publishing house has rescued it for its Fuera de Serie collection.
The Banco del Libro, an organization founded in 1960, annually awards the best literature books for children and young people.
“I received the news of the nomination from a message left by Fanuel Hanán, the book’s editor. Although I was very happy, I thought that everything would be there. It was also the editor who called me to tell me: We won! It just occurred to me to ask him: Are you sure?” he told the Herald.
For his part, Fanuel Hanán Díaz said that “the fact that the book was selected and nominated was great news, but that it won has been an extraordinary recognition.”
According to the Herald, for Chaviano, the publication in Colombia of his books Amoroso planeta and País de dragones has represented a new niche of followers of his work.
“Colombia is a country that has brought me many surprises. After the Colombian edition of Amoroso planeta came out, the book was incorporated into the reading programs in secondary schools in the country. The same thing happened with Country of Dragons,” she added.
The book “was born from the desire to rescue or preserve values that we sometimes forget or relegate to the background: creativity as a source of transformation, the certainty that love and pain are part of human history, the value of diversity … I wanted to expose them indirectly, through stories that will carry the breath of ancient fables and medieval legends”.
During his conversation with the Herald, he attributes that his stories continue to arouse the interest of younger readers in the topics.
“I suppose that their themes remain valid or continue to be so important that they manage to displace that virtual universe that has taken over the new generations.”
The Cuban writer was the winner in 2020 of the award for the best book in Spanish language at the Florida Books Awards for his novel “The Children of the Huracán Goddess”.
Chaviano won the Gold Medal for the Best Book in the Spanish Language at the 14th edition of the literary awards instituted by the Florida State University, where some 175 works were presented for the 11 categories, of which only one is dedicated to books. in Spanish in all genres.
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