The Uruguayan poet Ida Vitale (Montevideo, 1923) has been awarded with the 2018 Cervantes Award.

What is considered to be the “Nobel Prize” of Spanish literature endows the winner with 125,000 euros. Written in the tradition of the Latin American avant-garde, Vitale, whose work is characterized by short poems, a search for the meaning of words and a metaliterary character, is a representation of essentialist poetry. The award values ??"her use of language, one of the most recognized in Spanish." An unwritten rule was broken. Since 1996, the Cervantes Prize used to alternate between Spanish and Latin American award winners. But last year Nicaraguan Sergio Ramírez received the award – who is  part of the jury this year – and now this year goes to Vitale. She will receive it in April in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid). And, according to Carme Riera, representative of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) in the jury, she hopes she can attend the event in her best form despite being 95 years old. She was not referring to Ida Vitale's uncertain state of health, but because the few women who have been awarded so far – only five, including the Uruguayan poet – could barely climb the complicated stairs of the cathedral. Neither María Zambrano nor Dulce María Loynaz were able to do so, just to mention two examples.

Read more here: EL PAÍS