The Cuban writer Leonardo Padura (Havana, 1955), one of the leading voices of contemporary Spanish-language literature, has won the Liber 2026 Award for the most outstanding Hispanic-American author, awarded by the Federation of Editors’ Guilds of Spain (FGEE).
The award ceremony will take place on September 30 at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), within the framework of the Liber 2026 International Book Fair, announced by the federation on Thursday in a statement.
The jury highlighted Padura’s “ability to tell stories that, beginning with research, explore truth, guilt, friendship, and the weight of history on people’s lives.” It also valued a career with wide international reach and the richness of registers and genres that characterize his work.
A central figure of contemporary Hispanic literature and recognized with the Princesa de Asturias Award for Literature in 2015, Padura’s work, published by Tusquets, is marked by social critique and a deep attention to Cuba’s recent history, offering a complex view of memory, utopias, and the disillusionments of several generations.
His name is especially linked to the series of crime novels starring Mario Conde, a melancholic yet lucid detective through whom the novelist portrays daily life, the contradictions, and the transformations of Cuban society. In addition, he is the author of novels such as La novela de mi vida, Herejes, Regreso a Ítaca —adapted for the cinema by Laurent Cantet—, Como polvo en el viento, Morir en la arena —his most recent work— or the acclaimed El hombre que amaba a los perros, where he recreates the history of León Trotsky, Ramón Mercader and the political and ideological wounds of the 20th century. His oeuvre also includes the short story collection Aquello estaba deseando ocurrir and essays such as Agua por todas partes, Los rostros de la salsa and Ir a La Habana, a personal, cultural, and literary journey through the city.
Efe / Francisco Guasco / Archivo
Over the course of his career he has received recognitions such as the Café Gijón Prize, the Dashiell Hammett Prize, the Islas Award 2000, the Brigada 21 Prize, the Barcino Prize for Historical Novel, and the Pepe Carvalho Prize of 2023.
Upon learning of the Liber Prize award, the writer expressed his gratitude to the Federation of Editors’ Guilds of Spain for “giving visibility” to the work of writers and highlighted the significance of becoming the first Cuban author to receive it: “It represents recognition not only of myself but also of the culture to which I belong and in which I remain.”
The Liber fair, one of the main events for exporting, showcasing and promoting Spanish-language publishing, will be held from September 29 to October 1 in Barcelona and will bring together more than 250 publishers and companies. In the same ceremony, the Liber 2026 Prizes for the Promotion of Reading in public libraries will be awarded, this year going to the Regional Library of Murcia; for the Promotion of Reading in Media to the supplement ABC Cultural; and to the best audiovisual adaptation of a literary work, to the series Anatomía de un instante, among others.