Premio Planeta 2026 winner to be named Thursday at 75th anniversary ceremony in Barcelona

A record field for the 75th edition

The Premio Planeta will be awarded on Thursday, 15 October 2026, at the Montjuïc venue of Fira de Barcelona, during a literary dinner that the Reyes are due to preside over. Grupo Planeta reports that the 75th edition drew 1,424 manuscripts, a new record for the prize. Ten titles were initially selected, but the count stands at nine finalists because the author of one of them chose to self-publish, and the prize only considers unpublished work. The winner receives one million euros and the runner-up 200,000 euros, and this year the finalists also receive a trophy for the first time. Entries came mostly from Spain with 778 titles, followed by South America with 383 (154 of them from Argentina) and North America with 151.

Nine finalists, most under pseudonyms

At the press conference at the Palau de la Música on Wednesday, the finalists' plots were laid out, and two of the ten titles discussed came with their authors' real names while eight were written under pseudonyms. Pedro Regalado Rodríguez, an Argentine writer, is named for La sombra de Isabel, a first-person historical novel about Isabel I of Castile raised amid court intrigue. Pepe M. Carrascosa, a Madrid journalist, is named for Letraherido, a noir in which a former police officer turned criminologist helps an old colleague investigate deaths where a bookcrossing volume lies beside each body. Mencía Salazar's La noche de los faroles, published under a pseudonym, follows a Spanish spy in 1780 who obtains the signal codes of a British convoy during the American War of Independence. The jury's spokesperson, Luz Gabás, said the shared theme across the finalists is clear.

Reading the finalists, we have seen a coincidence in all of them, perhaps because of the times we live in.

The finalists' books point to the historical novel's return to prominence this year, after a year marked by characters in crisis.

Prize history and last year's controversy

The prize began in 1952, when José Manuel Lara launched it three years after Editorial Planeta was founded, and its first winner was Juan José Mira with En la noche no hay caminos, chosen from 247 manuscripts. The initial purse was 40,000 pesetas, far below the one million euros paid today. Creuheras said the prize has sold 47 million copies over 75 years, which RTVE puts at about 600,000 per edition while ABC and El Periódico give 625,000. Last year's winner, television presenter Juan del Val, with Vera, drew sharp criticism from critics, although ABC describes the public reaction as adequate. Creuheras answered the criticism by saying the prize owes its legitimacy to readers.

We owe ourselves to readers, not to the opinions of different people.

Publisher talks and the Thursday dinner

Creuheras confirmed at the press conference that Grupo Planeta is in advanced talks to acquire Editorial Juventud, a deal that El Periódico had reported earlier on Wednesday. He said the group has for years grown through qualitative deals rather than volume, and that this acquisition would serve a younger readership. The winner and runner-up will be revealed during the literary dinner on Thursday evening, with the Reyes presiding over the ceremony. The timeline below shows the two key dates around the press conference and the award night.