2018 PEN/Edward and Lily Tuck Award for Paraguayan Literature

The PEN/Edward and Lily Tuck Prize for Paraguayan Literature is meant to assist with the translation of Paraguayan literature from Spanish or Guarani into English. It is open to both established and emerging Paraguayan writers. The award carries a cash stipend of $3,000 for the living author of a major work of Paraguayan literature. Another $3,000 is given to the winning translator in order to bring the work to the English-speaking world.

All winners and finalists for this award are eligible to receive PEN America’s official winner or finalist seal. If you are a publisher of a shortlisted or winning book for this award and are interested in obtaining the PEN America award seal, please write to [email protected].

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Current Cycle: 2020

Honoring books published in 2019.

Submissions: June 1, 2019 – August 15, 2019
Awards Ceremony: March 2020

 

Fantasmario by Javier Viveros (Retta Libros)
Retta Libros Ι  Amazon

Judges: Julia Sanches, Lorea Canales, Rubén Ríos Ávila

From the judges’ citation: “El jurado ha decidido de forma unánime otorgar el Premio Tuck a Fantasmario, de Javier Viveros. En estos cuentos sobre la Guerra del Chaco entre Paraguay y Bolivia, no estamos ante una defensa patriótica “paraguaya” de esta guerra, sino ante un relato del hecho como tal de la guerra, de sus cuerpos sufrientes y de la marca que ésta deja en la conciencia de sus sobrevivientes. Para lograr el efecto buscado, Viveros reconoce que uno de los fantasmas que tiene que enfrentar es el de la literatura misma.”

“The jury has unanimously chosen to recognize Fantasmario, by Javier Viveros, with the Tuck Award. In these stories about the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia, we are not dealing with a patriotic ‘Paraguayan’ defense of the war, but rather with a tale of the question of war itself, of its suffering bodies, and of the mark that war leaves on the consciousness of its survivors. To achieve the effect he seeks, Viveros recognizes that one of the ghosts he must confront is literature itself.”