Santiago Municipal Literature Award

The Santiago Municipal Literature Award (Spanish: Premio Municipal de Literatura de Santiago) is one of the oldest and most important literary awards in Chile[1] Created in 1934 by the municipality of Santiago, its first edition awarded the categories of novel, poetry and theater (later to be renamed as dramaturgy).[2] Two categories were added soon after – essay, in 1941, and short story, in 1954 – and four other more recently, in 2013 – children's and young adult literature, referential (memoirs, chronicles, diaries, letters, biographies, and also compilations and anthologies),[3] journalistic research and editing. In 2014 it was decided to start awarding children's and young adult literature separately, making it a total of ten categories.

Santiago Municipal Literature Award
Awarded for	Different literary genres
Sponsored by	Municipality of Santiago
Date	5 February 1934 (1934-02-05)
Country	Chile
Website	http://www.santiagocultura.cl/premios-municipales/

The prizes for the winners of each category consist of a sum of money – CLP$2,000,000 (US$2,635) in 2016 – and a diploma. The works published in 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.[3]

This award has undergone some interruptions during its history – It was not granted during the first three years of the dictatorship, and restored in 1976 under the administration of Mayor Patricio Mekis.[4] In 1985, Mayor Carlos Bombal revoked the jury's decision to award Jaime Miranda's Regreso sin causa[5] and ordered the suspension of the contest,[6] being finally restored in 1988 by Mayor Máximo Honorato.