The International Poetry Prize 'Ciudad de Pamplona' will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a special ceremony on 30 October at the Palacio del Condestable. The event will honour this year's winners, Sergio Manuel Moreno Domínguez for his work 'Septiembre y lunes' in Spanish, and Ane Zuazubiskar Iñarra for 'Tigre bat azalean' in Basque.
Organised by the City Council of Pamplona and the Ateneo Navarro, the anniversary will feature a poetry and music recital titled 'Lamentos de la Gran Manzana' at Civivox Pompelo later that day. This performance draws inspiration from Federico García Lorca's 'Poet in New York', coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the poet's death.
Celebrating two decades of poetry
Since its inception in 2007, the International Poetry Prize has received approximately 8,000 submissions in both Spanish and Basque, with around a third coming from international participants, predominantly from Latin America. The award aims to create a prestigious platform for literary creation and to promote the city's name globally through poetry.
In a press conference held at the Condestable, Maider Beloki Unzu, the City Council's delegate for Culture, Festivals and Sports, along with Pedro Salaberri Zunzarren, president of the Ateneo Navarro, and Javier Asiáin Urtasun, the Ateneo's Poetry and Literary Awards representative, discussed the evolution of the prize over the past two decades.
Special anniversary activities
To further celebrate the anniversary, the City Council and Ateneo Navarro will host additional cultural activities open to the public, free of charge. The 'Lamentos en la Gran Manzana' show will combine poetry recitation with jazz music and adapted songs from Lorca's work. The event will feature performances by poets and musicians including Javier Asiáin Urtasun, Maia Catalán, Pedro Planillo, Jorge Sánchez, David Yanguas, and Dani Domínguez, starting at 19:30.
Additionally, Salaberri has created a commemorative painting specifically for this occasion, which will be included in the publications of the winning works.
Recent award details
The 20th edition of the 'Ciudad de Pamplona' Poetry Prize received 383 submissions, comprising 364 in Spanish and 19 in Basque from over twenty countries. Each category offers a prize of €3,000, along with publication of the winning works.
Sergio Manuel Moreno Domínguez, born in Jerez de la Frontera in 1982, has previously won several prestigious poetry awards and is a graduate in Fine Arts and a Master's in Humanities and Arts from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Ane Zuazubiskar Iñarra, born in Arrasate in 1997, has a background in Audiovisual Communication and has worked as a journalist.
The Ateneo Navarro oversees the organisation of the prize, while the City Council handles the financial aspects and publication costs, committing to purchase 250 copies of the winning works.
