Santo Domingo. – The
Ministry of Culture today presented the 2025 Annual Literature Awards and the 2024 José Gabriel García Annual History Award during an event headed by the Minister of Culture, Roberto Ángel Salcedo, in the Ramón Oviedo Gallery of the ministerial headquarters.
The activity brought together cultural authorities, writers, researchers, and representatives from various media outlets, who gathered to recognize literary excellence and national historiographical work.
In this awards ceremony, Minister Salcedo was accompanied by the Vice Minister of Cultural Identity and Citizenship, Pastor de Moya; the General Director of Books and Reading, Aquiles Julián Barreras, and by the Director of Literary Management, Fari Rosario.
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The winners of the different categories were announced last July. The Salomé Ureña de Henríquez Annual Poetry Award was given to the poet, narrator, playwright, and academic César Israel Sánchez Beras for his work “Ciudad caníbal”.
The Annual José Ramón López Short Story Award went to César Augusto Zapata Santos, author of “Dreams are also mirrors.” Zapata is a poet, essayist, and narrator, with extensive teaching experience and a literary production that has been the subject of anthologies and reviews outside the country. Among his distinctions are the Casa de Teatro International Poetry Prize (2004) and the Pedro Mir Literature Prize on two occasions.
On his side, the Manuel de Jesús Galván Annual Novel Award was granted to Jesús María Pérez Martínez for “Espejuelos, náufrago en el mar Caribe”. The writer, born in Valencia and residing in the Dominican Republic, a country he considers his “literary homeland” since 1986, developed a journalistic career before dedicating himself to fiction.
The Cristóbal de Llerena Annual Theater Award recognized the play “Crónicas del aquí y de ahora (Crónica del puente)”, by playwright Arístides Radhamés Polanco, whose career includes studies in pedagogy, theater and art history both in the country and in Europe, in addition to having a solid work as a professor, actor, director and researcher. The recognition was received by his son, Heliot Polanco Tineo.
The Pedro Henríquez Ureña Annual Essay Award was granted to Fernando de Jesús Reynoso Cabrera, author of “The Utopia of America in ‘Leaves of Grass,’ by Walt Whitman.” Reynoso is a professor, poet, visual artist, and critic, with a career that integrates contributions to contemporary art, cultural management, and academic research, also being a member of the Dominican Academy of Language.
For her part, the Aurora Tavárez Belliard Annual Children’s and Youth Literature Award was granted to Brunilda Altagracia Contreras Núñez for “From Juliana to Julián”. Contreras is a writer, communicator, and reading promotion specialist, with more than a dozen published titles and recognitions such as the National Library of Children’s Literature Award 2024.
Finally, the 2024 José Gabriel García Annual History Award distinguished the research “History of the Dominican-Haitian border”, by Miguel Reyes Sánchez and Alberto Despradel Cabral. Reyes Sánchez is a historian, lawyer, and diplomat, author of more than 40 works and a two-time winner of this same award. Despradel Cabral, also a diplomat and historian, has been an ambassador in several countries.
This award comes with a prize of 500,000 pesos, a certificate of recognition, and the publication of the work under the imprint of the National Publishing House. For their part, the winners of the different categories of the Annual Literature Awards will receive an endowment of 300,000 pesos, a certificate, and the publication of their works.
The act concluded with words of thanks on behalf of the awardees, spoken by the historian Miguel Reyes Sánchez, followed by a toast in honor of the winners. The ceremony reaffirmed the Ministry of Culture’s purpose of continuing to stimulate national literary production and the strengthening of written culture as a foundation for social development.
