# Miguel de Cervantes Prize

The Miguel de Cervantes Prize (Spanish: Premio de Literatura en Lengua Castellana Miguel de Cervantes) is awarded annually to honour the lifetime achievement of an outstanding writer in the Spanish language.

## History

The prize was established in 1975 by the Ministry of Culture of Spain and first awarded the following year. The Encyclopædia Britannica calls it "most prestigious and remunerative award given for Spanish-language literature". The winner receives a monetary award of 125,000 euros, which makes it one of the richest literary prizes in the world. The prize rewards authors from any Spanish-speaking nation and recognizes the recipient's overall body of work. Of the forty-seven prizes awarded in the history of the Cervantes Prize, only six have ever been awarded to women. In 1988, the Spanish writer María Zambrano (1904-1991) was the first female writer to be honored. The award is named after Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote. The candidates are proposed by the Association of Spanish Language Academies (i.e., the Royal Spanish Academy).
As of the presentation of the 2024 award to Álvaro Pombo, the recipients have been recognized for their writing of novels, poetry, short stories, essays, translations, philosophy or dramas – or for combinations thereof. With two winners in 1979, there have been 50 recipients of the Miguel de Cervantes Prize.

### The Cervantes Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature

Three of the 50 winners of the Miguel de Cervantes Prize have also won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Octavio Paz (Cervantes 1981, Nobel 1990) and Mario Vargas Llosa (Cervantes 1994, Nobel 2010), were awarded the Nobel Prize in subsequent years, while Camilo José Cela received the Nobel Prize in 1989 and was awarded the Cervantes Prize in 1995.

## Laureates

The list of winners is available at the official Premio 'Miguel Cervantes' website.
| Year | Winner | Country | Genre(s) |
| 1976 | Jorge Guillén | Spain | poetry |
| 1977 | Alejo Carpentier | Cuba | novel, essay |
| 1978 | Dámaso Alonso | Spain | poetry |
| 1979 | Jorge Luis Borges | Argentina | short story, poetry, essay, translation |
| 1979 | Gerardo Diego | Spain | poetry |
| 1980 | Juan Carlos Onetti | Uruguay | novel |
| 1981 | Octavio Paz | Mexico | poetry, essay |
| 1982 | Luis Rosales | Spain | poetry, essay |
| 1983 | Rafael Alberti | Spain | poetry |
| 1984 | Ernesto Sabato | Argentina | novel, essay |
| 1985 | Gonzalo Torrente Ballester | Spain | novel |
| 1986 | Antonio Buero Vallejo | Spain | drama |
| 1987 | Carlos Fuentes | Mexico | novel, essay |
| 1988 | María Zambrano | Spain | philosophy, essay |
| 1989 | Augusto Roa Bastos | Paraguay | novel |
| 1990 | Adolfo Bioy Casares | Argentina | novel, short story |
| 1991 | Francisco Ayala | Spain | novel, short story, essay, translation |
| 1992 | Dulce María Loynaz | Cuba | poetry |
| 1993 | Miguel Delibes | Spain | novel |
| 1994 | Mario Vargas Llosa | Peru | novel, essay, short story, drama |
| 1995 | Camilo José Cela | Spain | novel |
| 1996 | José García Nieto | Spain | poetry |
| 1997 | Guillermo Cabrera Infante | Cuba | novel |
| 1998 | José Hierro | Spain | poetry |
| 1999 | Jorge Edwards | Chile | novel |
| 2000 | Francisco Umbral | Spain | novel, essay |
| 2001 | Álvaro Mutis | Colombia | poetry, novel |
| 2002 | José Jiménez Lozano | Spain | novel |
| 2003 | Gonzalo Rojas | Chile | poetry |
| 2004 | Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio | Spain | novel, essay |
| 2005 | Sergio Pitol | Mexico | novel |
| 2006 | Antonio Gamoneda | Spain | poetry |
| 2007 | Juan Gelman | Argentina | poetry |
| 2008 | Juan Marsé | Spain | novel |
| 2009 | José Emilio Pacheco | Mexico | poetry, novel, short story |
| 2010 | Ana María Matute | Spain | novel |
| 2011 | Nicanor Parra | Chile | poetry |
| 2012 | José Manuel Caballero Bonald | Spain | poetry, novel |
| 2013 | Elena Poniatowska | Mexico | novel |
| 2014 | Juan Goytisolo | Spain | novel, essay |
| 2015 | Fernando del Paso | Mexico | novel, poetry, essay, drama, short story |
| 2016 | Eduardo Mendoza | Spain | novel, drama |
| 2017 | Sergio Ramírez | Nicaragua | novel, short story, essay |
| 2018 | Ida Vitale | Uruguay | poetry, prose, essay |
| 2019 | Joan Margarit | Spain | poetry |
| 2020 | Francisco Brines | Spain | poetry |
| 2021 | Cristina Peri Rossi | Uruguay | prose, poetry, short story, translation |
| 2022 | Rafael Cadenas | Venezuela | poetry, essay |
| 2023 | Luis Mateo Díez | Spain | novel, essay |
| 2024 | Álvaro Pombo | Spain | novel, short story, poetry, essay |

## Laureates per country

The following table shows the number of laureates per country:
| Rank | Country | Laureates |
| 1 | Spain | 26 |
| 2 | Mexico | 6 |
| 3 | Argentina | 4 |
| 4 | Chile | 3 |
| 4 | Cuba | 3 |
| 4 | Uruguay | 3 |
| 7 | Colombia | 1 |
| 7 | Nicaragua | 1 |
| 7 | Paraguay | 1 |
| 7 | Peru | 1 |
| 7 | Venezuela | 1 |
| | Total | 50 |