Writers from 13 countries will participate in the first edition of the Gabriel Garcia Marquez Spanish-American short story competition in honor of Colombia’s late, great literary legend.
Some 125 authors were chosen to compete for a $100,000 prize for coming up with the best book of short stories for the Colombian-based competition, according to the contest’s official government website.
In order to qualify for the competition, writers had to submit work originally composed no later than 2013 and in the Spanish language.
Also according to the official source, “70% of their [authors] content must not have been previously published.”
The submissions received will become part of both the National Library and the National Network of Public Libraries in Colombia.
Those judging the competition hail from Spain, El Salvador, Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia.
Five finalists will be announced in late October and the winner of the competition will be announced at the end of November.
The competition is named after the Colombia’s recently deceased Nobel Prize laureate author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
According to Colombia’s Caracol Radio, the writing contest aspires to be the largest of its kind in Latin America and to establish itself as “a benchmark in the field of literary creation” and the publishing world in the Spanish language.