HAY FESTIVAL AWARDED THE PRINCESS OF ASTURIAS PPRIZE IN THE FIELD OF COMMUNICATION AND HUMANITIES
JOINTLY WITH THE GUADALAJARA BOOK FAIR
The statement from the Prize Jury reads:
In the course of its online meeting, the Jury for the 2020 Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities has decided to confer the 2020 Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities on the Guadalajara International Book Fair and the Hay Festival of Literature & Arts for representing the most important meeting points worldwide for books, writers, readers and culture.
Promoted by the university of the Mexican city of Guadalajara, the Guadalajara International Book Fair has become a universal literary phenomenon. With enormous popular impact and mass participation, it constitutes a major focus for the promotion of the Spanish language. Launched in 1988 in the small Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye, the Hay Festival has brought together readers and writers through its different editions, which have spread to America, Europe and Near East since 2006.
Both events bring the most varied publics together around Literature and congregate hundreds of thousands of visitors every year with the aim of fomenting the habit of the reading. The Guadalajara Fair and the Hay Festival further contribute decisively to strengthening cultural industries and making them sustainable.
The Hay Festival directors say:
“It is an extraordinary honour to receive the Premio Princesa de Asturias. It’s humbling to be considered alongside the other laureates and we are delighted to share this honour in Communication and Humanities with our friends at the beloved Guadalajara International Book Fair. From Hay-on-Wye in the mountains of Wales to the great cities of Segovia in Spain, Cartagena de Indias and Medellín in Colombia, Arequipa in Peru and Querétaro in Mexico, and to the global sphere of our digital projects, Hay Festival celebrates and brings writers and readers together to imagine the world. It has never seemed more important to try to understand our crises and our opportunities, to find new ways of connecting people, and to foster a sense of renewal and hope. To the jury and the Prize, and all our colleagues and partners and readers and festival-makers around the world over these 33 years, we say - thank you.”
Director General: Peter Florence(Hay-on-Wye, Wales), Director (Spain): María Sheila Cremaschi(Madrid) and Director (international): Cristina Fuentes(London)
This is the third of eight Princess of Asturias Awards, which are being bestowed this year for the fortieth time. The Princess of Asturias Awards for Concord went to Spanish health workers on the front line against COVID-19 and the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts went to composers Ennio Morricone and John Williams. The rest of awards will be announced in the coming days in the following order: Social Sciences, Sports, Literature, Technical and Scientific Research, and International Cooperation.
Each of the Princess of Asturias Awards comprises a Joan Miró sculpture representing and symbolizing the Awards, a cash prize of 50,000 euros, a diploma and an insignia.
The news of the prize comes the week after the completion of Hay Festival Digital, which attracted almost half a million views from around the world.
Notes
The Princess of Asturias Foundationconvenes the Princess of Asturias Awards, which are presented at an academic ceremony held each year in Oviedo, capital of the Principality of Asturias. The Foundation’s aims are to contribute to extolling and promoting those scientific, cultural and humanistic values that form part of the universal heritage of humanity and to consolidate the existing links between the Principality of Asturias and the title traditionally held by the heirs to the Crown of Spain.
The Jury of the 2020 Princess of Asturias Prize iscomposed of Luis María Anson Oliart, Alberto Edgardo Barbieri, Irene Cano Piquero, Gabriela Cañas Pita de la Vega, Aurora Egido Martínez, Taciana Fisac Badell, Elsa González Díaz de Ponga, Santiago González Suárez, Alan Goodman, Álex Grijelmo García, Miguel Ángel Liso Tejada, Rosa María Mateo Isasi, Emilio Morenatti Fernández, Álex Pina Calafi, Ana Santos Aramburo and María Sefidari Huici, chaired by Víctor García de la Concha and with Alberto Anaut González acting as secretary.
https://www.fpa.es/en/princess-of-asturias-awards