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Gioconda Belli wins Guadalajara Book Fair’s 2026 Romance Languages Literature Prize

From Confidencial · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

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  • Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli won the 2026 FIL Literature Prize in Romance Languages by a unanimous jury decision.
  • The jury praised her direct style and her treatment of the body, female desire, political consciousness, and the relationship between private and collective life.
  • Belli will receive $150,000 and the award at the Guadalajara International Book Fair’s opening on Nov. 28.

Gioconda Belli, one of Nicaragua’s most prominent contemporary writers, has won the 2026 FIL Literature Prize in Romance Languages, one of the leading honors awarded at the Guadalajara International Book Fair.

Carmen Alemany, a jury spokeswoman, announced the decision in Guadalajara on Aug. 31. The jury selected Belli unanimously, describing her as “one of the most powerful voices among contemporary Latin American authors.”

The jury praised her direct, everyday language and said her work had revitalized “the poetic expression of the body, female desire and pleasure.” It also highlighted her ability to bring together sensory experience and political awareness, as well as intimate and collective concerns.

one of the most powerful voices among contemporary Latin American authors

— Carmen Alemany, jury spokeswomanShe announced the jury’s description of Gioconda Belli when presenting the 2026 prize.

The jury’s statement said Belli had carried those themes into her novels, memoirs and essays. Her writing, it added, has been shaped by major political upheavals in Mexico and Nicaragua and has influenced several generations of writers and readers.

Belli, 77, has lived in exile in Madrid since 2020. Her books include The Inhabited Woman, published in 1988, The Country of Women, published in 2010, and The Fevers of Memory, published in 2018. She previously received the Casa de las Américas Prize in 1978, the German PEN Hermann Kesten Prize in 2018 and the Reina Sofía Ibero-American Poetry Prize in 2023.

The award carries a prize of $150,000 and will be presented on Nov. 28 during the opening of the 40th Guadalajara International Book Fair. Italy will be the fair’s guest of honor this year. Since 1991, the prize has recognized writers including Nicanor Parra, Fernando del Paso, Margo Glantz, Emmanuel Carrère, Claudio Magris, Enrique Vila-Matas and Amin Maalouf.

the poetic expression of the body, female desire and pleasure

— FIL Literature Prize juryThe jury cited Belli’s treatment of these themes as a reason for its unanimous decision.
About this summary

Originally published by Confidencial in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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