FSU English faculty member earns prestigious literary prize for novel
A 糖心vlog faculty member has been awarded the Herralde Novel Prize, a prominent literary honor in the Spanish language, for his novel exploring the concepts of ownership and plagiarism in memory and literature.
Associate Professor of English earned the honor for his recent novel, 鈥淓l contrabando ejemplar,鈥 which translates to 鈥淓xemplary Smuggling.鈥 The Herralde Novel Prize is given to an author鈥痜or an unpublished manuscript, which is common for several Spanish-language prizes. Maurette is only the fifth Argentinian writer to have won the award and is the first FSU faculty member to receive it.
鈥淲hile this prize isn鈥檛 very well known in English writing, it might be the most prestigious literary award for young authors writing in Spanish,鈥 Maurette said. 鈥淔or that reason, and since my novel competed against almost 900 other novels, I feel extremely fortunate and proud to have earned it. I also feel very humbled because some of my favorite writers in Spanish have won this prize.鈥
The prize was established in 1983 by Jorge Herralde, the founder and publisher of Anagrama, a publishing house in Barcelona, Spain. Each year, Anagrama publishes the award-winning novel and provides the author a monetary reward of鈥25,000 euros.
鈥淓l contrabando ejemplar鈥 is Maurette鈥檚 seventh publication, joining a roster of four books of essays and two other novels. His first novel, 鈥淚l tempo 猫 un fiume鈥 or 鈥淭ime is a River,鈥 was a contender for the Premio鈥疓regor鈥痸on Rezzori, an Italian prize for foreign fiction.
鈥淲riting is what I do, and it鈥檚 what I鈥檝e done since I can remember,鈥 Maurette said. 鈥淧rizes are important in a writer鈥檚 career as they tend to give you, at least for some time, a lot more visibility. Even if I didn鈥檛 receive any awards or recognition, however, I would continue to write as long as I live quite simply because it鈥檚 how I express myself. I feel lucky that I understood this a long time ago, and I鈥檝e put all my energy and effort into it.鈥
Maurette鈥檚 novel tells the story of two aspiring writers who are close friends despite having a significant age gap. The older writer is working on a novel about Buenos Aires in the 1600s, which shaped its economy at the time with a sophisticated and clandestine trade system known as 鈥渆xemplary smuggling.鈥 When this writer passes, the younger writer steals the manuscript, determined to plagiarize it.
鈥淓verything we write, even if we think it鈥檚 original, comes from something we鈥檝e read and forgotten about,鈥 he said. 鈥淟iterature is a type of paramnesia, that phenomenon by which you attribute to yourself memories that happened to others. In relation to the millennia that human beings have spent on this earth telling one another stories, we need to convince ourselves that we create out of nothing, that we are original, that we own what we write. That鈥檚 very naive.鈥
In its synopsis of the award-winning novel, Anagrama writes, 鈥'Exemplary Smuggling' questions the meaning of what is lost and what is invented. A celebration of the personal and the collective, it transforms the act of storytelling into a unique and moving literary experience. A novel that finds its place within the great tradition of the best Latin American narrative.鈥
The Herralde Novel Prize has been awarded in the past to a long list of distinguished writers, including Roberto Bola帽o, Javier Marias,鈥乴varo Enrigue and Guadalupe Nettel.
鈥淭he Department of English is absolutely thrilled that Pablo has been given this wonderful award for his new novel 鈥 he鈥檚 in very elite company,鈥 said Andrew Epstein, department chair and Caldwell Professor of English. 鈥淭he Herralde Novel Prize further solidifies Pablo鈥檚 international reputation as both a celebrated novelist and a scholar of literature.鈥疻e couldn鈥檛 be happier about this amazing and well-deserved recognition.鈥
Maurette, a native of Buenos Aires, earned his doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2013. He joined the FSU in 2019 and teaches in the department鈥檚 Literature, Media, and Culture program. In May 2023, he worked as a writer in residence for Italy鈥檚 Fondazione Santa Maddalena, and from April to June 2024, he was a research fellow at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in California.
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