Julio Llamazares wins Spain's National Narrative Prize for El viaje de mi padre

Award decision and jury findings

The Spanish Ministry of Culture awarded the 2026 National Narrative Prize to writer Julio Llamazares on Friday for his work El viaje de mi padre. Endowed with 30,000 euros, the state prize recognizes narrative books written by Spanish authors. The jury, chaired by Director General of the Book María José Gálvez Salvador, selected the volume published by Alfaguara for its examination of memory and generational trauma. The committee noted that the book presents an intimate portrait of how wartime wounds persist across decades.

Through a poetic, refined, and sober prose, the landscapes and characters become the true protagonists of a journey through time that binds space, past, and literature, providing an honest gaze, without epic grandiosity, linked to its most human side.

Retracing a wartime march through Aragon

In El viaje de mi padre, published in autumn 2025, Llamazares reconstructs the wartime movements of his father, Nemesio Alonso, a village schoolteacher who died in August 1996 in La Mata de la Bérbula, León. Alonso was drafted in 1937 at the age of 18, experiencing military actions on fronts including Teruel and the Sierra de Espadán. The author began researching the journey after a chance encounter with one of his father's former wartime companions. Retracing that route across Aragón 86 years later, Llamazares documents physical landscapes, local encounters, and personal reflections without romanticizing the violence. The text opens with a dedication directed to all who lost the Spanish Civil War on either side, to those who lose all wars, and to his siblings.

El viaje de mi padre is configured as a work of great sensitivity that invites reflection on the passage of time and generational bonds, transforming an individual experience into an intimate rebellion against oblivion and memory loss.

Four decades of literary work

The 2026 award honors a body of writing developed across five decades of poetry, fiction, journalism, and travel books. Born in Vegamián in 1955, the 71-year-old author published his earliest poetry collections, La lentitud de los bueyes in 1979 and Memoria de la nieve in 1982. He established widespread prominence with early novels such as Luna de lobos and his 1988 title La lluvia amarilla, which chronicled the depopulation of a mountain village 38 years ago. His nonfiction and travel bibliography features El río del olvido, Trás-os-Montes, Cuaderno del Duero, Las rosas de piedra, Atlas de la España imaginaria, El viaje de don Quijote, and Las rosas del sur. His narrative output also includes later novels and essays such as El cielo de Madrid, Las lágrimas de San Lorenzo, Distintas formas de mirar el agua, and Vagalume.

Context of the national prize

The decision was reached on Friday by a jury comprising Maite Salord, Rosa Agost Canó, Carmen Alemany Bay, Miguel Barrero Vázquez, José Belmonte Serrano, Mayte Antona, Brígida Manuela Pastor Pastor, Ramón Rozas Domínguez, and Paco Cerdà. Cerdà, who won the 2025 edition with his work Presentes, formally handed over the distinction to Llamazares. The award has recognized prominent figures in contemporary Spanish narrative, including Raúl Quinto, Pilar Adón, Marilar Aleixandre, Xesús Fraga, Juan Bonilla, Cristina Morales, Almudena Grandes, and Fernando Aramburu.