Inma Pelegrín, winner of the Lumen Novel Prize for Fosca, a "comprehensive novel" that "smells and can be touched."

The work Fosca , by poet Inma Pelegrín , was awarded the 3rd Lumen Novel Prize this Tuesday. The jury, composed of writers Ángeles González Sinde , Elena Medel and Clara Obligado , the director of the Rafael Alberti bookstore in Madrid, Lola Larumbe , and the literary director of Lumen, María Fasce , selected a work that, according to the minutes, "is read with the senses and the heart."

According to the publisher, Fosca tells the story of a boy gifted with a special sensitivity who must learn to defend himself in a claustrophobic and hostile environment where, nevertheless, tenderness is possible. "A rural thriller that grips and suffocates," describes the publisher. Inma Pelegrín's work has been selected from among 402 novels competing for a prize with a cash prize of 30,000 euros and publication throughout the Spanish-speaking world. "Language is another character in this anti-coming-of-age novel with elements of a rural thriller and echoes ranging from Ana María Matute to Jesús Carrasco," the jury emphasizes about Fosca .

What is the special sensitivity of Gabriel, Pelegrín's character? As the author revealed at the Lumen Prize awards ceremony, the key is prosopagnosia, a neurocognitive disorder that makes it difficult or impossible to recognize faces, and which Pelegrín herself suffers from. "I've never been able to explain what prosopagnosia means," said the author, who has entrusted her protagonist with this mission. Pelegrín cited Joan Margarit ("literature is made with life") and Ana María Matute to explain the spirit with which she approached the story that won her the Lumen Prize.

Previously, the women who served on the Lumen Prize jury offered literary praise for the novel. Elena Medel described Fosca as an "anti-novel of learning," a text "that smells, that is touched, that has a blinding light" and that recalls Selva Amada, Agota Kristoff, and, again, Ana María Matute. Clara Obligado placed the novel in the tradition of the Spanish grotesque and said that it is, "obviously, the novel of a poet" whose "place is language." Lola Larrumbre emphasized that the award-winning work returns our gaze to the disinherited of history and described it as a "material novel." And finally, María Fasce compared Fosca to Luis Buñuel.

Inma Pelegrín (Lorca, 1969) has a degree in Philosophy and Educational Sciences and in Psychology and is the author of poetry books, but Fosca is her first novel. Her notable works include Dirty Rags (2008), Rust (2008, Gerardo Diego International Poetry Prize), All Directions (2020, Antonio Machado International Poetry Prize in Baeza) and the Jaén Poetry Prize for The Theory of Things (2022), reports Efe

The Lumen publishing house, founded in Barcelona in 1960 by Esther Tusquets , was a pioneer in highlighting literature written by women. A result of this objective was the launch of the Lumen Women's Prize from 1994 to 1999, conceived as an award to discover literary talent among women.

As a legacy of this initiative, the Lumen Novel Prize continues in 2025 with the commitment to fostering creativity and highlighting female writers throughout the Spanish-language world. In 2024, the winner was Natalia Litvinova , the Belarusian-born Argentine writer, with Luciérnaga .