Cuban writer wins the III El Barco de Vapor CARIBE 2022 Award
The manuscript by Cuban author Elena Beatriz Corujo stands out among 177 entries, winning the most important children's literature prize in the Caribbean.
(San Juan, June 3, 2022) The SM Foundation is pleased to award the III El Barco de Vapor CARIBE 2022 Prize to the talented writer Elena Beatriz Corujo Morales. The winning manuscript, titled La ventana de las palabras (The Window of Words), rose above 177 works by various writers representing Caribbean countries: Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. Among these entries, only four were named finalists: La ventana de las palabras by Elena Beatriz Corujo Morales (Cuba), the winning work; El camino de los peces by Malena Salazar Maciá (Cuba); Braulio XP. Niños de la noche by Eudris Planche Savón (Cuba); and A la buena, buena vida by Gretchen López Ayala (Puerto Rico).
The winning work was chosen unanimously by a jury with vast experience in the world of literature: Dinah Kortright Roig, a retired Puerto Rican professor of Language and Literature from the School of Modern Languages at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico; Liliana Montenegro de Olloqui, from the Dominican Republic, Doctor of Language Sciences, professor, and researcher at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra; and José M. Fernández Pequeño, a Dominican-Cuban writer, author of literary criticism, narrative, essays, and children's literature, and university professor. Representing the SM Foundation were Mónica Volonteri, an Argentine writer and educator responsible for Children's and Young Adult Literature (LIJ) at SM Dominican Republic, and Judy García Allende, a Puerto Rican professor, editor, textbook co-author, and head of the SM Foundation in Puerto Rico.
Elena Beatriz Corujo Morales was born in Mayajigua, Cuba, on July 31, 1958. She is a prominent Cuban writer residing in Havana. She holds a degree in Spanish and Literature and is also a screenwriter and television director. She has been honored with both national and international literary awards.
Winning Work: La ventana de las palabras
La ventana de las palabras is a notable text due to the strength of its narrative tone and the steady hand with which it sustains a story built from authentically recreated conflicts in the voice of its narrator-protagonist, thanks to the accurate use of narrative techniques. The story follows a 12-year-old girl, Davina, who lives humbly in the town of El Cano, on the outskirts of Havana, with her family: a painter father detached from reality due to schizophrenia, a mother excessively attached to religion who neglects her daughter, and an ever-present grandmother who finds ways to provide bread amidst their precarious living conditions. The work is set in a community where different types of people coexist, just as in real life. An unexpected twist at the end of the book marks a positive change in the lives of the protagonist and her family.
The recreation of reality and colloquial speech is highly creative and builds powerful characters of great interest, while confronting us with social situations where devastating evils such as social exclusion, discrimination against those who are different, and prejudices of all kinds regarding illness or any attitude that evades the norm prevail.
III El Barco de Vapor CARIBE 2022 Award
This year we celebrate the third El Barco de Vapor CARIBE 2022 Children's Literature Prize from the SM Foundation. The objective of this prestigious award is to promote literature for children and young people that fosters a love for reading, while promoting human, social, cultural, or religious values that help build a dignified world. The Barco de Vapor Award transforms lives to, in turn, transform those of many young people through reading and imagination.
SM Puerto Rico
SM is a cultural and educational project with two fully integrated areas of action: the work of the SM companies, dedicated to the development of educational content and services, religious publications, and children's and young adult literature; and the social work of the SM Foundation, which allocates the group's profits to improve the quality of education and bring teaching and culture to the most disadvantaged sectors of society. Currently, SM is one of the most prominent actors in the Ibero-American educational sector, with clear leadership in its fields of action.
