Felipe VI and Letizia presided over the 75th Premio Planeta ceremony in Barcelona. The winner receives €1 million, and this year’s contest drew a record 1,424 entries from around the world.
On October 15, Felipe VI and Letizia presided over the 75th Premio Planeta ceremony at pavilion 1 of the Fira de Barcelona, Montjuïc complex. The event brought together representatives from Spain’s cultural and business communities, along with public officials.
The anniversary field set a record, with 1,424 original works submitted by authors from around the world.
The winner receives €1 million, while the finalist gets €200,000, bringing the total prize fund to €1.2 million. The top award rose to €1 million in 2021, for the competition’s 70th edition. Casa Real describes the Premio Planeta as a literary award that draws particularly high interest in Spain and Latin America.
In his address, Felipe VI praised the plurality of the prize’s literary legacy and said literature can take readers beyond their own experience. José Manuel Lara Hernández, founder of Editorial Planeta, established the award in October 1952 to promote authors from Spain and Latin America while attracting new readers. The first prize went to Juan José Mira’s novel En la noche no hay caminos, chosen from 247 manuscripts. Its first edition had 5,000 copies, and the prize was 40,000 pesetas. Moncloa reported that the 2026 shortlist included ten finalists, whose works were submitted under pseudonyms.
The Barcelona appearance adds to recent public coverage of the monarchs, including this report on their visit to Ceuta.
