She is best known for her innovative song compositions that reinvented merengue, but last week Dominican Rita Indiana Hernandez’s novel “La Mucama de Omicunle” (Periférica publishers) was awarded the Grand Prix Littéraire Région Guadeloupe on Saturday, 8 April 2017 at the fifth Caribbean Writers Congress (6-9 April 2017). The Congress was hosted by the Guadeloupe Regional Authority.
The 40-year old year author and singer-songwriter’s novel, “The Maid of Omicunle’s Room”, leads the reader to the frightening and seemingly inevitable conclusion of the impending destruction of our world, portraying a stark and troubling picture of the consequences in our society if we do not stop the process of dehumanization and violence. The Guadeloupe literary award establishes that while the novel retains the Dominican rhythm that characterizes the author, especially through geography, history and linguistic codes, it is also deeply Caribbean and Latin American, as reported in Caribbean News Now.
The international jury members were: Andrès Bansart (Venezuela); Earl Lovelace, president of the Caribbean Writers Association (Trinidad and Tobago); Camila Valdés (Cuba); Patricia Donatien (Martinique); Lyonel Trouillot (French language area); Prof. Funso Aiyejina (English language area); and Ariel Camejo (Spanish language area).
This is the first time that a Spanish-language novel wins an award at the Caribbean Writers Congress.
Read more:
Caribbean News Now
Diario Libre
17 April 2017
