Chilean writer, Gonzalo Rojas, one of the great Latin American poets of the 20th century will inaugurate the Casa de las Americas 2008 Prize on January 21, sources of the institution told Prensa Latina.

Rojas who will be 90 a day before will be the special guest to this event, considered one of the most prestigious in the area, founded in 1959 by Haydee Santamaria.

Twenty one writers and literature scholars will be in charge of selecting the award winning works from January 21 to 31, reviewing the selections in the fields of poetry, story, essay of historical-social subjects, Caribbean literature in French or Creole and Brazilian literature.

In the latter category non-fiction works written in Portuguese and published in this language during 2006-2007 will be competing.

The jury is made up as follows:

Poetry: Juan Manuel Roca (Colombia); Jorge Boccanera (Argentina); Gustavo Pereira (Venezuela), Carmen Berenguer (Chile) and Alex Pausides (Cuba).

Story: Mario Bellatín (Peru-Mexico); Luis Lopez Nieves (Puerto Rico), Humberto Mata (Venezuela), Francisco Proaño (Ecuador) and María Elena Llana (Cuba).

Historical and sociological Essay: Guillermo Castro (Panama), Ana Ester Ceceña (Mexico), Frabk Hinkelammert (Germany-Costa Rica), Jorge Mansilla Torres (Bolivia) and Mayra Espinosa (Cuba).

Brazilian literature: Jose Luis Jobim, Rizardo Rezende and Livia Reis, from Brazil.

Caribbean literature in French and Creole: Roger Toumson (Guadalupe), Francoise Moulin (France) and Rafael Rodriguez Beltran (Cuba).

The decision will be given on January 31 in the Che Guevara Hall of Casa de las Americas.

(CubaSí.cu)