The international recognition of Argentine literature continues. The Argentine-Spanish storyteller, playwright, theater director, teacher and arts graduate Laura Sbdar (Barcelona, 1990) won this Saturday Aura Estrada International Literary Prize for a project that consists of continuing the story begun in his novel until it shines (Edhasa, $33,900), released in June. The author, who has lived in Buenos Aires since she was three, receives twenty thousand dollars. Bolivian storyteller and researcher Natalia Chávez Gómez da Silva was a finalist.
The awards ceremony took place at the Guadalajara International Book Fair, following the disappearance of the Oaxaca International Book Fair, also in Mexico, where the winning author was once well known.
Established in 2008 in memory of Mexican writer Aura Estrada (1977–2007), the prize is awarded biennially to an author between the ages of 18 and 35 who writes fiction in Spanish or one of Mexico’s native languages. Sbdar is the first Argentine to win it.
The international jury, consisting of the American Francisco Goldman, the Mexicans Gabriela Jauregui and Brenda Lozano, the Mexican Daniel Saldaña París and the Guatemalan Gladys Tzul Tzu, emphasized in their decision that Sbdar’s letter “is a… unusual power in his prosein the construction of images and in the development of characters.” “She turns out to be an extremely talented writer.”Highlights.
“The Aura Estrada Prize is not an award for a specific novel or work, but a bet on an author,” explains Sbdar in a dialogue with LA NACION. The authors present a project and apply not only for the prize money, but also for the opportunity to take part in author residencies. in New York, Wyoming, in Tuscany, in Oaxaca.” Among others, the Bolivian Liliana Colanzi and the Mexicans Verónica Gerber Bicecci and Aniela Rodríguez won this original competition.
Sbdar has published two novels: The creatures (elephant) and until it shines. “The project I submitted for the prize is entitled “Tense Happiness in a Time of Ruin” and consists of a novel consisting of five volumes, each narrated by a different voice.whose nerve center lies in the connections of class, gender and intimacy between the diverse characters living in a closed neighborhood.” Without naming names, the fictional space has the characteristics of a country in the suburbs of Buenos Aires.
“until it shines It is the first volume and the main roles are played by Elsa and Lili, two private domestic workers who work in a closed neighborhood – summarizes Sbdar. Elsa’s voice tells of an accident they have during the New Year’s celebration. when they decide to climb onto the bright yellow M flashing on the highway. I applied for the prize with this project and a fragment of it until it shines before it was published. Now I’m preparing to write the second volume, narrated by The Smallest, a character who appears in the first part; He is the youngest son in the housea very special creature.” The following volumes are narrated by Lili, the Greatest and the Woman and the Lord.
“There is poetry and tenderness in the horror that the characters experience. I always work with violence; The textual form increases the brutality and beauty appears where it is not invoked“observed Sbdar.
Jauregui noted that the Argentine author’s lyrics are “electrifying.” “He writes with exceptional precision, paying attention to intimate, emotional and psychological nuances. as well as physical details and gestures, with a captivating combination of conceptual and narrative humor,” he said.
His theatrical works include The Siamese work (which will return to Arthaus in February 2026), machine gun, Alert, One shot each (it will also be republished by Espacio Callejón in February), peat And The suicides. The volume These are the bones brings together four of his plays. Sbdar won the First Germán Rozenmacher Prize for Dramaturgy, an Honorable Mention in the National Fund of the Arts Literary Prize and the S Prize for Scenic Creation. He teaches courses at the National University of the Arts and coordinates the Fiction to Power writing workshops. She is the founder and director of the Prison Theater Festival.
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