The Premio Internacional de Poesía Ciudad de Melilla is one of Spain's top literary awards, given every year to an unpublished poetry collection by a Spanish-speaking author. The Prize was created in 1979 in honor of

Miguel Fernández Miguel Fernández may refer to: * Miguel Fernández (golfer) * Miguel Fernández (footballer) * Miguel Fernández (cyclist) * Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez (born 3 April 1945) is a Spanish economist and ...

Melilla Melilla (, ; ) is an autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of . It was part of the Province of Málaga un ...

's most distinguished poet, and is organized by the city's Consejería de la Cultura (Cultural Council). The Prize is awarded in October by a panel of renowned poets and critics, amid cultural festivities organized by Spain's UNED-''Universidad Libre a Distancia'' and the City Hall. In 2003, The Prize established a finalist or runner-up. The winner gets €18,000, while the finalist takes €9,000, and both books are published under the Prize's own collection by Visor, a poetry publisher. In the beginning, The Prize received more than 600 manuscripts every year, but it has been decreasing during the last 5 years. In the last edition, only 43 candidates took part. Candidates are mostly from Spain,

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

, and

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, but also from the United States and other parts of the world. Despite this, only three poets from outside Spain have ever won the award: Nicaraguan

Gioconda Belli Gioconda Belli (born December 9, 1948) is a Nicaraguan-born novelist and poet known for her contributions to Nicaraguan literature. Early life Gioconda Belli grew up in a wealthy family in Managua. Her father is Humberto Belli Zapata and her b ...

in 2006, Mexican

Marco Antonio Campos Marco Antonio Campos (9 September 1919 – 19 February 1996) was a Mexican comedian, actor, and singer best known as Viruta in the double act Viruta y Capulina with Gaspar Henaine.

in 2009, and Argentine

Diana Bellessi Diana Bellessi (born 1946) is an Argentine poet. Life Diana Bellessi was born in 1946, in Zavalla, Santa Fe, Argentina. She studied philosophy at the Universidad Nacional del Litoral. From 1969 to 1975, she walked the continent. For two yea ...

in 2010.

Winners

* 1979 Alfonso Canales,(''Spain'') * 1980

Mariano Roldán Mariano is a masculine name from the Romance languages, corresponding to the feminine Mariana. It is an Italian, Spanish and Portuguese variant of the Roman Marianus which derived from Marius, and Marius derived from the Roman god Mars (see als ...

, (''Spain'') * 1981

Luis Rosales Luis Rosales Camacho (31 May 1910 – 24 October 1992) was a Spanish poet and essay writer member of the Generation of '36. He was born in Granada (Spain). He became a member of the Hispanic Society of America and the Royal Spanish Academy ...

, (''Spain'') * 1982

, (''Spain'') * 1983 Pedro Molina Temboury, (''Spain'') * 1984

Fernando Quiñones Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, and former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa and Asia (like the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka). It is e ...

, (''Spain'') * 1985

Miguel Ángel Velasco --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places * Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands *São Miguel (disamb ...

, (''Spain'') * 1986

Antonio Abad Antonio Abad y Mercado (May 10, 1894 – April 20, 1970) was a prominent Filipino poet, fictionist, playwright and essayist. Personal life Antonio Abad y Mercado was born in Barili, Cebu, under the Captaincy General of the Philippines, on 10 M ...

, (''Spain'') * 1987

Elsa López Amada Elsa López Rodríguez (born 17 January 1943) is a Spanish writer specializing in poetry. Biography Amada Elsa López Rodríguez was born and lived in Fernando Poo (now Bioko), Equatorial Guinea until 1947, the year she moved to the isla ...

, (''Spain'', born in Equatorial Guinea) * 1988 Almudena Guzmán, (''Spain'') * 1989

Pablo García Baena Pablo García Baena (; 29 June 1921 – 14 January 2018) was a Spanish poet. He was born and raised in Córdoba. In 1947, he formed a literary/artistic group called Cántico with his friends and fellow-writers Ricardo Molina, Juan Bernier, Juli ...

, (''Spain'') * 1990 Arcadio López-Casanova, (''Spain'') * 1991 Ángel García López, (''Spain'') * 1992 Rafael Morales, (''Spain'') * 1993 Javier Yagüe Bosch, (''Spain'') * 1994

Felipe Benítez Reyes Felipe Benítez Reyes (born 1960) is a prolific Spanish writer. He was born in Rota, Cadiz, where he lives to this day. Biography He studied at the University of Cádiz and University of Seville. His literary output spans multiple genres, inc ...

, (''Spain'') * 1995 Vicente Gallego, (''Spain'') * 1996

Juan Carlos Suñén ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries around the world and in the Philippi ...

, (''Spain'') * 1997

Luis Antonio de Villena Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

, (''Spain'') * 1998

Clara Janés Clara Janés Nadal, born in Barcelona (6 November 1940), is a Spanish writer of several literary genres. She is recognised as a poet and is distinguished as a translator of different central European and eastern languages. Since 2015, she has o ...

, (''Spain'') * 1999 Itzíar López Guil, (''Spain'') * 2000 Ángeles Mora, (''Spain'') * 2001 Benjamín Prado,(''Spain'') * 2002 Antonio Jiménez Millán, (''Spain'') * 2003 Antonio Cabrera, (''Spain'') * 2004 Francisco Díaz de Castro, (''Spain'') * 2005 Luis Alberto de Cuenca, (''Spain'') * 2006

, (''Nicaragua'') * 2007 Miguel García Posada, (''Spain'') * 2008 Antonio Lucas, (''Spain'') * 2009

,(''Mexico'') * 2010

,(''Argentina'') * 2011 Manuel Vilas Vidal,(''Spain'') * 2012

Juan Van Halen Juan Van Halen y Sartí (16 February 1788 – 8 November 1864) was a Spanish military officer and Russian military officer of Flemish origin. After fighting for the losing side in the Peninsular War, he was forced to flee to Spain. Van Halen bec ...

,(''Spain'') * 2013 Eduardo García, (''Spain, born in Brasil'')

External links

Ayuntamiento de Melilla

Visor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Premio Internacional de Poesia Ciudad de Melilla Spanish literary awards Poetry awards Awards established in 1979