The Santiago Municipal Literature Award ( es, Premio Municipal de Literatura de Santiago) is one of the oldest and most important literary awards in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Created in 1934 by the municipality of

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

, its first edition awarded the categories of novel, poetry and theater (later to be renamed as dramaturgy). Two categories were added soon after – essay, in 1941, and short story, in 1954 – and four other more recently, in 2013 – children's and young adult literature, referential (memoirs, chronicles, diaries, letters, biographies, and also compilations and anthologies), journalistic research and editing. In 2014 it was decided to start awarding children's and young adult literature separately, making it a total of ten categories. The prizes for the winners of each category consist of a sum of money – CLP$2,000,000 () in 2016 – and a diploma. The works published in first edition the year prior to the contest may be submitted (in dramaturgy, the works released the year before the contest may also be submitted); in each genre, a jury selects three finalists from which it subsequently chooses the winner. This award has undergone some interruptions during its history – It was not granted during the first three years of the

dictatorship A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship are ...

, and restored in 1976 under the administration of Mayor . In 1985, Mayor Carlos Bombal revoked the jury's decision to award Jaime Miranda's ''Regreso sin causa'' and ordered the suspension of the contest, being finally restored in 1988 by Mayor .

List of winners

1934–1939

1940–1949

1950–1959

1960–1969

1970–1979

1980–1989

1990–1999

2000–2009

2010–present

References

{{Reflist 1934 establishments in Chile Awards established in 1934 Chilean literary awards Culture in Santiago, Chile