
What’s less known is that the awards are open to English-language writers as well. In the four years of the contest, no English-language entries have been received. Aida Bahr, Caribbean Literature Action Group member and Vice President of Cuba’s Instituto del Libro, is hoping that will change in 2014.
Anyone under 40, born in any country in Latin America and the Caribbean, can enter. The entries must be original and unpublished novels, 120 to 400 pages, and should not be under contract with a publisher, literary agent or be simultaneously entered in another contest.
Entries are due in October of each year, and the winners are announced at the Havana Book Fair, the following February. Winners have their books published and receive USD 10,000 or its equivalent in their local currency. Each year’s winners are invited to the next year’s staging of the Havana Book Fair, where they get a chance to interact with fellow writers from the region at the fair’s Young Writers Conference.
Learn more about the Alba Narrative Awards.