The Asturian historian and editor Rafael Rodríguez Valdés has won the 32nd Xuan María Acebal Prize for poetry in Asturian, organised by the Ministry of Culture, Linguistic Policy and Sport, for his work Histories d’una familia obrera. This poem collection explores the recent history of the working-class Asturias through a lens that merges family and collective memory.
The jury highlighted the solid construction of the poetry collection and its ability to weave personal experiences with those of an entire generation, creating a narrative that is both intimate and political. They also acknowledged the author's deep understanding of Asturian literature.
Antón García, the General Director of Cultural Action and Linguistic Normalisation, chaired the jury, which included previous winner Sofía Fernández Castañón, along with philologists Rodrigo Olay Valdés, Iris Quintana Villa, Alba González Sanz, and Taresa Fernández Lorences. Laura Marcos Domínguez, a philologist from the Linguistic Planning and Normalisation Service, served as secretary.
The Xuan María Acebal Prize is endowed with €6,000 and includes the publication of the winning work. In addition, Rodríguez Valdés will have the opportunity to participate in Asturies, Cultura en Rede, a programme aimed at promoting his work across various locations in the region and reaching new audiences.
Rafael Rodríguez Valdés, born in Oviedo in 1978, holds a degree in History from the University of Oviedo and a university specialisation in Archival Science from UNED. He previously served as president of the Young Historians Association, which organised several editions of the Contemporary History Conferences at the University of Oviedo in the early 2000s, and was the director of Erada. Revista de Historia Contemporánea de Asturias, which published three issues between 2007 and 2010. He is also the author of various works on contemporary Asturian history, including Discursos llingüísticos y movimientu obreru na Asturies decimonónica (Ediciones Trabe, 2009), which won the 2008 Fierro Botas Essay Prize, and El motor de la historia (Ediciones Trabe, 2026), a compilation of works published between 2004 and 2024 that discuss research, dissemination, and historiographical reflection on Asturias' recent past. From 2012 to 2026, he was responsible for the Linguistic Normalisation Service in the municipality of Corvera de Asturias, and since 2019, he has coordinated the Calume collection at Ediciones Trabe, where he currently serves as director.
