PETROPERU presented the 2017 Copé award

In a crowded ceremony, the prizes were awarded to the winners of the VI Novel Biennial and XVIII Poetry Biennial Copé Award 2017, the most recognized literary competition in the country, organized by PETROPERU for 38 years.

The writer Hugo Antonio Yuen Cárdenas won the Copé Oro Novel Award, with the work "El laberinto de los endriagos", while the poetry collection "Colección privada o los colores ocultos de la turbación", by Marco Antonio Quijano, won the award. Copé Oro for Poetry.

The Copé Plata Award in the Poetry category was for the work "La noche y su sombra", by Ernesto Zumarán Alvítez, while the poetry collection "Bajo la la azul azul del cielo" by Alejandro Susti won the Copé Bronce Award.

On the other hand, Alberto Juan Musso Vento with his work "El gallo de Candamo" and Max Daniel Crespo Loayza, with "La hora del montonero" were distinguished with honorable mentions in the VI Novel Biennial.

The General Manager of PETROPERU, Esteban Bertarelli, said that the organization of the Copé Prize is a clear example of the company's commitment to culture, perceived as an element to promote a more just society. "Therefore, we have developed throughout the year, a set of decentralized activities, which attest to our commitment to culture and the promotion of reading at the national level," he said.

He also highlighted the significance of this award in the cultural scene. "It is the most important literary contest in the country thanks to its participants, who see it as a platform to publicize their creations. Therefore, tonight we not only here to recognize the winners, but all the contestants over time, "he said.

For the jury that awarded the Copé Oro Poetry Award for the work "Colección privada o los colores ocultos de la turbación" won for its perfectly solid structure, in which the author essays a poetic meditation with respect to the thirteen oil paintings that make up the work. Mario Montalbetti, representative of the jury, pointed out that the writer anchors his meditations in a vast cultural world, where one can find Arguedas or Martín Adán, among others ".

On the other hand, the jury of the Copé Oro for Novel Award decided that "El laberinto de los endriagos" deserved the first place for being "a mature work that gives us a microcosm that synthesizes aspects as regional as universal, taking as a geographical axis on Madre de Dios and the informal mining that takes place in the region".

About this novel, the representative of the Jury, Ricardo González Vigil, said that it is a work of great quality, which places the author among the best storytellers who have addressed the theme of our forest. "It is an enduring book that honors the Copé Prize as a contest," he said.

At the end of the ceremony, the next edition of the Copé 2018 Award was announced.