The Formentor Foundation has announced in Seville the name of the winner of the 2021 Formentor Prize: César Aira. The Argentine writer, with more than a hundred works behind him, wins the award for his “indefatigable recreation of the narrative impetus, the versatility of his endless story and the playful irony of his impatient imagination”, according to the record of the jury.
jurado Prix Formentor 2021

The press conference held in Seville was attended by the members of the jury Basilio Baltasar, Francisco Ferrer and Anna Caballé. “Aira writes in a different way, separating him from the common of Pan-American writers. It hooks the reader and produces breaks that leave them absolutely misplaced”, explained Francisco Ferrer.

The award will be presented on October 10 in Tunisia with the winner, the members of the jury, journalists and writers and other guests.

Literary conversations

Asked if the Formentor conversations will continue to be held in Mallorca, Basilio Baltasar declared: “We do not know if it will be possible to continue the literary conversations as we have known them throughout these wonderful 13 years in Formentor. The idea of ​​recovering the itinerant history of the award has allowed us to renew it with an added impetus and what we hope is that this itinerancy reflects the international vocation of the prize and to be able to take these meetings to different parts of the world”.

The Premio Formentor literary prize is organized by the Formentor Foundation with the patronage of the Barceló and Buadas families. It was awarded for the first time in 1961 and was received, among others, by Jorge Luis Borges, Samuel Beckett and Jorge Semprún. The Formentor Foundation has been created to organize the Formentor Prize and the literary conversations that are held every year.