Cuban writer wins poetry prize in Spain

March 7, 2021

The Havana-based writer Barbarella González Acevedo, known as Barbarella D'Acevedo, won the XIX Paco Mollá Poetry Competition in Spanish with the work Érebo.

In statements to OnCuba, Barbarella has explained that this work contains 14 poems, although she will negotiate the inclusion of others that she continued writing after submitting her book to the competition.

"It is a poetry collection with a classical theme that draws from recurring characters in Greco-Latin mythology such as Helen of Troy, Penelope, Circe, among others… but that I approach from myself and my life experiences in a somewhat confessional tone."

Her work prevailed over the 384 notebooks submitted, a notably larger volume than those received in the previous 2018 edition, since these awards are biennial.

González Acevedo, born in 1985, is a professor, senior editor of Revista Cúpulas at the ISA, theater scholar and graduate of the Onelio Jorge Cardoso Literary Training Center.

The Paco Mollá literary competition, convened by the Foundation bearing the name of the Valencian poet, in collaboration with the Consistory of Petrer, features a monetary award of 3000 euros for the best poetry collection, for both the Spanish and Valencian language competitions. The poetry collections will be published by Aguaclara publishing house.

María Josep Juan Ballester was the winner in the Valencian language section with the poetry collection Saber qui som (Knowing Who We Are).

In this edition, and with the aim of facilitating the promotion and dissemination of the competition, participation was opened to writers from any country, and the possibility of submitting poetry collections remotely, via email, was provided, which contributed to an increase in submissions.