The writer will be awarded during the Evening of the Arts
Isla Negra, a poetry book written by Elsa Cross won the Mazatlán Literature Prize 2024, it was announced this morning during a press conference chaired by the General Director of the Instituto de Cultura, Turismo y Arte de Mazatlán, Raúl Rico González and writer Juan José Rodríguez.
“The Mazatlán Literature Prize is dressed in luxury this time with an academic, but also with a prolific writer, artist and essayist,” said the General Director of CULTURA.
This is the fifth woman to be awarded and the fourth poetry book to be awarded in the history of this prestigious award of great national importance.
Book presentation and award
Writer Elsa Cross will present her work, Isla Negra, on Friday, February 2nd at 7:00 p.m. during a meeting with readers at Casa Haas.
Elsa Cross will receive the award and a cash prize of 100 thousand pesos awarded by the Autonomous University of Sinaloa during the Evening of the Arts.
The award ceremony will be framed by a concert, on Saturday, February 3rd at 8:00 p.m. at the Ángela Peralta Theater with the stellar performance of Alexandre Da Costa, Director and solo violinist, with brilliant participation in more than 2 thousand concerts on four continents. and more than 30 countries in the most prestigious places in the world.
The voice of Elsa Cross
Through a phone call, writer Elsa Cross shared with representatives of the media her emotion regarding the jury’s decision to award her work.
Regarding the role of literature in the current context, the renowned 77-year-old writer highlighted that literature also has to be faithful to the extent that it can preserve its own identity as literature, as a form of knowledge and expression with such ancient roots, to the extent that I did not allow myself to be defeated by all that banality that exists in all the media that are now very fashionable (digital), but they are weak things, I do not know how long they will last, what they will finally represent, but I don’t think they can replace the essence of literature; This does not mean that literature cannot make use of these technical, technological, and digital resources, but it must preserve its own essence.
Reflection by Octavio Paz
About the literary work of the writer who will be awarded the Mazatlán Literature Prize 2024, Octavio Paz wrote:
“Cross is one of the most personal voices in the latest Latin American poetry. Her work, already considerable, brings together some of the most perfect poems among those written by the last Mexican generations. I say voice and not poetic writing because poetry, even if it is written, is above all said. “Two opposite notes are harmoniously combined in Elsa Cross: the complexity of thought and the clarity of diction.”
Travel has had a lot of weight in my poetry: Elsa Cross
In a talk with León Plascencia Ñol, published in La Jornada Newspaper, Elsa Cross stated: Travel has had a lot of weight in my poetry. That’s when I write the most.
Peru, India, Teotihuacan or ancient Greece are some of the visits in her verses.
The title of the book refers to the name that the Chilean Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda gave to his house in Valparaíso: It is not an island, it is on the seashore. When visiting the South American country she toured his houses, she was an obsessive collector, but it is a pleasure to see conch shells and everything she collected.
Isla Negra is a book that somehow brings together the obsessions and fields of work in which Elsa’s poetry has been installed, considered Plascencia Ñol.
Some poems are deeply philosophical and others are visual, close to painting. Others refer to classical, Greek antiquity.
A collection of poems that were put together over a few years, and among which there is a certain affinity of tones and themes, described the poet, translator and philosopher.
