Author Antonio Malpica Maury (b.1967) has become the first Mexican to win the SM Ibero-American Children’s and YA Literature Award, which carries a $30,000 purse and will be awarded at the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) on December 1.

Founded in Spain in 1977 and funded by Spanish publisher Ediciones SM, the SM Foundation promotes educational and cultural initiatives for impoverished children and young adults in Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

The prize will be awarded for Malpica’s “sensibility to broach complex social problems, throwing light on the dark areas of our world” and his “wide range of themes, genres, atmospheres and styles handled in his extensive work, and the wide spectrum of readership at which it is aimed,” according to a statement from the prize jury.

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