First versions of two novels, Leonardo Padura's legacy in the Caja de las Letras of the Instituto Cervantes

September 21, 2021

Leonardo Padura, 2015 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature winner and the most published Cuban writer today, deposited on Monday at the Instituto Cervantes' Letters Box the first version of his work 'The Novel of My Life', as well as the first pages of 'Like Dust in the Wind'.

Padura deposited his legacy in box 697 of the old armored chamber that houses the Instituto Cervantes headquarters in the same act in which Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez left a legacy "in memoriam" of Rubén Darío.

Padura's consists of the first version of 'The Novel of My Life' (2002), a copious set of folios containing multiple annotations by the founder-director of Tusquets, Beatriz de Moura.

With this donation to the Instituto Cervantes, which will pass from the Letters Box to the Heritage Library, Padura wanted to pay homage "to a fundamental person" in his career and in that of many other writers and to acknowledge the work of the renowned editor in her support and assistance to authors.

He also left "the first pages, even prior to the writing process" of 'Like Dust in the Wind' (2020), his most recent narrative work. This document, for him "very revealing", will remain in the Letters Box for a time that he has not yet decided, the novelist, literary critic, essayist and screenwriter stated.

After the delivery of the legacies, the Instituto Cervantes presented a book about his work with which it opens a collection that will analyze the creation of contemporary Spanish-language writers. This first volume is titled "The Writing of Leonardo Padura", and analyzes general questions about the varied work of the novelist and essayist and about some of his most outstanding titles.

Padura discussed this collective work with editor and journalist Juan Cruz, writer Sergio Ramírez, and art critic, researcher and poet Rafael Acosta de Arriba, responsible for the edition together with Stephen Silverstein.

With this title the Instituto Cervantes inaugurates 'The Promised Isles', a collection of critical studies and academic research that will analyze the creation of writers from the contemporary pan-Hispanic community.