Mónica Ojeda has been honoured with the prestigious “Next Generation Award” from the Prince Claus Foundation.
The Prince Claus Awards honour visionary individuals and organisations for their excellent, ground-breaking work in fields of culture and development. In particular, the Next Generation Award honours an individual who is a role model for younger generations and whose cultural actions have a positive impact particularly on young people in their society, especially in regions where resources or opportunities for cultural expression, creative production and preservation of cultural heritage are limited.
The jury has decided to honour Mónica Ojeda:
- for her strong and innovative voice that expresses powerful truths about the troubling environment and experiences of the younger generations;
- for devising a new vocabulary and style to imaginatively convey explicit thoughts in a dynamic and persuasive but calm and non-judgemental way that creates space to think;
- for her unflinching exploration of the underbelly of human existence and perceptively engaging with unacknowledged or denied aspects of human sexuality and psychology;
- for examining fear, pain, vulnerability and perversity within trusted relationships and power structures, and showing how lives are damaged by such traumatic experiences;
- for her inventive reimagining of the novel, refashioning genres and integrating today’s media and digital phenomena to articulate the evolving forms and languages of the next generation;
- for redefining writing as a dangerous exercise that uses intense language to produce and reveal experience, expressing seemingly inexpressible truths and restoring intimacy with instinct, the incomprehensible and terror; and
- for boldly mapping out her own aesthetic and intellectual path, and inspiring next-generation writers to fearlessly reshape the literary world.
We are very proud of representing authors with such great talent. Congratulations Mónica, you deserve it!