Mexican author Gonzalo Celorio — essayist, novelist, and editor — was awarded the 2025 Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious recognition in Spanish-language literature, announced Spain’s Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, in Madrid this Monday. The prize includes a monetary award of €125,000 and is regarded as the highest honor in Hispanic letters.
“Over more than five decades, Gonzalo Celorio has established a literary voice of remarkable elegance and depth,” said Urtasun. “His work blends critical lucidity with a narrative sensitivity that explores the nuances of identity, emotional education, and loss,” he added, highlighting the 77-year-old writer’s literary trajectory.
Last year’s Cervantes Prize went to Spanish author Álvaro Pombo, and the previous year to Luis Mateo Díez. Other recent winners include Venezuelan poet Rafael Cadenas (2022), Uruguayan writer Cristina Peri Rossi (2021), Spaniards Francisco Brines (2020) and Joan Margarit (2019), and Latin American authors Ida Vitale (Uruguay, 2018) and Sergio Ramírez (Nicaragua, 2017) — breaking the traditional alternation between Spanish and Latin American recipients.
In recent years, the list of laureates has also included Eduardo Mendoza (2016), Fernando del Paso (2015), Juan Goytisolo (2014), Elena Poniatowska (2013), José Manuel Caballero Bonald (2012), and Nicanor Parra (2011), among others.
The first Cervantes Prize was awarded in 1976 to Jorge Guillén, one of the leading figures of Spain’s Generation of ’27. Since then, 43 writers have received the honor — 20 Spaniards and 22 Latin Americans. The only year with dual winners was 1979, when the award was shared ex aequo by Gerardo Diego and Jorge Luis Borges.