Santiago Municipal Literature Award

The Santiago Municipal Literature Award (Spanish: Premio Municipal de Literatura de Santiago) is one of the most important literary prizes of Chile. Created on 5 February 1934 by the municipality of Santiago, the first awards were given in the genres of novel, poetry, and theater (later to be called dramaturgy);[1] in 1941 essay was added, and in 1954, short story. 2013 saw the addition of children's and young adult literature, referential ("memoirs, chronicles, diaries, letters, biographies, and also compilations and anthologies"),[2] journalistic research, and editing. The following year it was decided to extend the recognition of the works directed to minors, and to award children's and young adult literature separately, thus making a total of ten categories in competition.

The oldest literary award in Chile,[3] it consists of the delivery of a sum of money, which in 2016 was 2,000,000 pesos (US$2,845) for each genre, and a corresponding diploma. The works published in the first edition the year prior to the contest may be submitted (in dramaturgy, the works released the year before the contest may also be submitted); in each genre, a jury selects three finalists from which it subsequently chooses the winner.[2]

This award has suffered some interruptions during its history. It was not granted in the first three years after the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet, who overthrew the socialist government of Salvador Allende in September 1973. It was restored by Regulation No. 4 of 22 December 1976 under the administration of Mayor Patricio Mekis.[4] In the middle of the following decade, the then mayor of Santiago, Carlos Bombal, revoked the 1985 award to Jaime Miranda and his Regreso sin causa[5] and ordered the suspension of the act granting the awards.[6] The prize remained interrupted until 1988; the following year, under Mayor Máximo Honorato, Regulation No. 7 of 25 January restored it. The decision of the jury, which on that occasion granted a shared prize and four honorable mentions, was published on 26 June.[7]