Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists

Granta’s Best Young Novelists issues have been some of the magazine’s most important – ever since the first ‘Best of Young British Novelists’ in 1983, which featured stories by Salman Rushdie, A. N. Wilson, Adam Mars-Jones and Martin Amis. There have since been two more Best of Young British Novelists lists, in 1993 and 2003, and lists for American novelists in 1996 and 2007. The titles have become milestones on the literary landscape, predicting talent as much as spotting it.

Today, Granta takes a new step in this tradition: our first-ever Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists issue. It will be published first in Spanish as Los mejores narradores jovenes en español (published by Duomo Ediciones) and the English edition will follow, coming out on 25 November. The twenty-two writers on the list have been chosen by a distinguished panel of six judges: Valerie Miles and Aurelio Major, editors of Granta en español; Guatemalan-American novelist Francisco Goldman; Catalan critic, editor and author Mercedes Monmany; British journalist and ex-Latin American correspondent Isabel Hilton; and Argentinian writer and film-maker Edgardo Cozarinsky. To be eligible, the writers had to be born on or after January 1, 1975.

The list, announced at a press conference at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid at noon today, is:

ANDRÉS BARBA – Spain, b. 1975
OLIVERIO COELHO – Argentina, b. 1977
ANDRÉS RESSIA COLINO – Uruguay, b. 1977
FEDERICO FALCO – Argentina, b. 1977
PABLO GUTIÉRREZ – Spain, b. 1978
RODRIGO HASBÚN – Bolivia, b. 1981
SÒNIA HERNÁNDEZ – Spain, b. 1976
CARLOS LABBÉ – Chile, b. 1977
JAVIER MONTES – Spain, b. 1976
ELVIRA NAVARRO – Spain, b. 1978
MATÍAS NÉSPOLO – Argentina, b. 1975
ANDRÉS NEUMAN – Argentina, b. 1977
ALBERTO OLMOS – Spain, b. 1975
POLA OLOIXARAC – Argentina, b. 1977
ANTONIO ORTUÑO – Mexico, b. 1976
PATRICIO PRON – Argentina, b. 1975
LUCÍA PUENZO – Argentina, b. 1976
SANTIAGO RONCAGLIOLO – Peru, b. 1975
ANDRÉS FELIPE SOLANO – Colombia, b. 1977
SAMANTA SCHWEBLIN – Argentina, b. 1978
CARLOS YUSHIMITO – Peru, b. 1977
ALEJANDRO ZAMBRA – Chile, b. 1975

The issue will be celebrated with launch events in London and New York from 29 November to 3 December.

Granta editor John Freeman, Mercedes Monmany (panel judge) and Valerie Miles, co-editor of Granta en español

Mercedes Monmany, Aurelio Major, Edgardo Cozarinsky, (panel judge) Valerie Miles (co-editor of Granta en español) and John Freeman

For all enquiries, including serial rights, please contact Saskia Vogel on svogel@granta.com | +44 (0)207 605 1379. Keep an eye on our events page for details of our launch weeks in New York and London (29 November – 3 December). We also publish today the winning entry in Harvill Secker’s first annual Young Translators’ Prize, which was awarded last night to Beth Fowler for the best rendition into English of Matías Néspolo’s story ‘El Hachazo’.

From the production of the Spanish edition:

Visit the blog of Granta en español, or the Duomo Ediciones website, where you can buy the Spanish edition.