Launch of the First Isabel Polanco International Essay Prize

The Fundación Santillana will launch, in collaboration with the Guadalajara International Book Fair (Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara - FIL), the First Isabel Polanco International Essay Prize on Wednesday, December 17 in Madrid. Gonzalo Celorio, secretary of the Mexican Academy of Language (Academia de la Lengua Mexicana), Emiliano Martinez, president of the Grupo Santillana and Juan Gonzalez, head of content for Ediciones Generales del Grupo Santillana, will provide all the details.

The prize was first announced in Mexico last June and is in honor of the late CEO of Grupo Santillana. She will be remembered for the spectacular energy she brought to the publishing activity of PRISA throughout Spain and Latin America over the course of her 12 years at the helm of Grupo Santillana.

The prize is worth 100,000 dollars and the jury is headed by the renowned Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes. Gonzalo Celorio is jury secretary. The winning work will be published by Taurus and distributed throughout Latin America, Spain and the US, where the Grupo Santillana operates.

The theme of this, the first award, is the Bicentenary of Latin American Independence. In the future, the award will recognize work on other subjects which shed light on history and currents in 21st-century thought.