Ana Blandiana, Princess of Asturias Award for Literature

Romanian poet Ana Blandiana has been granted the 2024 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature, as announced today by the Jury responsible for conferring said Award.

The Jury for this Award –convened by the Princess of Asturias Foundation– was chaired by Santiago Muñoz Machado and composed of Xosé Ballesteros Rey, Xuan Bello Fernández, Blanca Berasátegui Garaizábal, Gonzalo Celorio Blasco, Jesús García Calero, Pablo Gil Cuevas, Francisco Goyanes Martínez, Lola Larumbe Doral, Aurora Luque Ortiz, Inés Martín Rodrigo, Juan Mayorga Ruano, Carmen Millán Grajales, José María Pou Serra, Ana Santos Aramburo, Irene Vallejo Moreu, Juan Villoro Ruiz and Fernando Rodríguez Lafuente (as acting secretary).

This candidature was put forward by Ricardo Rivero Ortega, former Rector of the University of Salamanca, an institution bestowed with the 1986 Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation.

Otilia Valeria Coman, whose pen name is Ana Blandiana (Timișoara, Romania, 25th March 1942), poet, essayist and politician, published her first book of poems, Persoana întâia plural [First Person Plural], in 1964 and achieved public acclaim with Călcâiul vulnerabil [Achilles’ Heel, 1966] and A treia taină [The Third Secret, 1969]. She worked for the magazines Viata Studenteasca and Amfiteatru –where she published some poems that have become icons of the struggle against the communist dictatorship– and as a librarian at the Bucharest Institute of Fine Arts. Daughter of an “enemy of the people”, she was prohibited from studying at university after the appearance of her first poem in a magazine in 1959. She began writing protest poetry in the late eighties. After the 1989 revolution, she embarked on a political career with a campaign that promoted the elimination of the communist legacy and the creation of an open society. Honorary president of PEN Romania, she is a member of the European Academy of Poetry, the Mallarmé Poetry Academy, the World Poetry Academy (UNESCO) and the Romanian Writers’ Union. Since 1994, she has been a founding member and president of the Civic Alliance Foundation, an apolitical movement whose purpose is to alleviate the consequences of more than fifty years of communism in the country.

A cult author throughout Europe, it has been said that Blandiana’s work reflects profound knowledge of the Romanian spirit during a historic period of oppression, while establishing hope and defeat as the guidelines of her literary undertaking. Known for her poetry in defence of freedom and human dignity, Blandiana stood out for her sublime form of rebellion that led her to live as an exile within her own country for many years. In addition to those mentioned above, her works include 50 de poeme [50 Poems, 1970], Octombrie, noiembrie, decembrie [October, November, December, 1972], Întâmplări din grădina mea [Occurrences in My Garden, 1980], Ora de nisip [The Hour of Sand, 1984], Întâmplări de pe strada mea [Occurrences on My Street, 1988], Arhitectura valurilor [The Architecture of Waves, 1990], 100 de poeme [100 Poems, 1991], În dimineața de după moarte [On the Morning After Dying, 1996], La cules îngeri [Angel Gathering, 1997], Cartea albă a lui Arpagic [Arpagic’s White Book, 1998], Soarele de apoi [The Sun of Hereafter, 2000], Poeme (1964-2004) [Poems (1964-2004), 2005], A fi sau a privi [To Be or to Seek, 2005], Patria mea A4 [My Native Land A4, 2010] and Variațiuni pe o temă dată [Variations on a Given Theme, 2018].

She is also the author of essays, editions of fantasy stories and two novels. Translated into more than twenty languages, the following works of hers have been published in English: The Hour of Sand (1990), My Native Land A4 (2015), The Sun of Hereafter • Ebb of the Senses (2018) and Five Books (2022). Her poetry has been said to be a constant, contained search, the permanence of the fleeting that leaves testimony of her belief in herself and in her people. Her prose has been compared to that of Poe, Hoffman, Kafka, Borges, Cortázar and Eliade. Critics have also highlighted that Blandiana symbolizes the conscience and testimony of her time, the emblematic opposition to the regime and the fight against censorship. They likewise underscore that her voice offers a reflection on artistic creation and the human condition, on innocence, decline, death and survival, on love and responsibility in the face of the terror of history and the need to leave testimony of what has been experienced.

Holder of the 1969 Poetry Prize awarded by the Romanian Writers’ Union, she has also received, among other distinctions, the Poetry Prize of the Romanian Academy, the Gottfried von Herder International Prize from the University of Vienna (1982), the National Poetry Prize (1997), the Opera Omnia Prize (2001), the Vilenica International Prize (2002) and the European Poet of Freedom Prize in 2016, in addition to the French Legion of Honour. She holds honorary degrees from the University of Salamanca (1986 Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation) and the University of Sofia, among others.

As stated in the Statutes of the Foundation, the Princess of Asturias Awards are aimed at rewarding “the scientific, technical, cultural, social and humanitarian work carried out at an international level by individuals, institutions or groups of individuals or institutions”. In keeping with these principles, the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature is conferred in recognition of “the work of fostering and advancing literary creation in all its genres”.

This year, a total of 38 candidatures comprising 21 different nationalities were put forward for the Literature Award.

This is the fifth of the eight Princess of Asturias Awards to be bestowed in what is now their forty-fourth year. Previously, the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts was granted to singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat, the Award for Communication and Humanities went to Franco-Iranian cartoonist, film director and painter Marjane Satrapi, the Award for Sports was conferred on badminton player Carolina Marín, while the Award for Social Sciences went to Canadian academic and essayist Michael Ignatieff. The corresponding Awards for International Cooperation, Technical and Scientific Research, and Concord shall be announced in the coming weeks (in the preceding order).

As is customary, the presentation of the Princess of Asturias Awards will take place in October in a solemn ceremony presided over by Their Majesties The King and Queen, accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses Leonor, Princess of Asturias, and Infanta Sofía of Spain.

Each Princess of Asturias Award comprises a Joan Miró sculpture symbolizing the Award, a diploma, an insignia and a cash prize of fifty thousand euros.