Mexican poet wins Almuñecar award

A MEXICAN poet, Mariel Martínez Damián has won Almuñecar’s third international poetry prize, the “City of Almuñecar.”

The jury comprised writer, Ayes Tortosa; poet, Trinidad Gan; author, Jorge Galan and Javier Bozalongo. After intense debate  they ‘unanimously’ decided to award the prize to the poet for her work La Chica que se quedado sola.

Mariel Martínez Damián, is a student of Hispanic literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and of biology at the National Polytechnic Institute and defines herself as half-scientist, half- poet.

The jury praised the winning work as being “original and sincere poetry of a beautiful intensity. The poems have a great freshness and naturalness.”

They added that the poems included “surprising images coming from science,” and that, “sensuality, daring, rhythm, plasticity and capacity for revelation are some of the outstanding notes of this collection.”

A total of 143 works were submitted, ranging from 500 to 1000 verses, from which five finalists were selected.

Almuñecar, Council has been running the poetry competition for three years in order to promote the name of the town and associate it with cultural activities of the first order that makes Almuñécar a destination of recognised cultural quality.