Jimmy Valdez awarded the Ultramar Literary Prize sponsored by SEC

Boulder Over the Cliff,” a play for theatre written by Dominican writer Jimmy Valdez, was declared the winner in the literary contest Ultramar Letters sponsored by the Ministry of Culture of the Dominican Republic, through a commissioner that awarded a cash prize of US $ 5000 and a certificate.

The Dominican Commissioner of Culture, Carlos Sanchez, congratulated Valdez for his prize and announced the award ceremony will take place next March 27, International Theatre Day.

The Dominican Commissioner of Culture, Carlos Sanchez, congratulated Valdez for his prize and announced the award ceremony will take place next March 27, International Theatre Day.

The jury was composed of Puerto Ricans writers Abriel Marat and Hector Luis Rivera and Dominican writer Julissa Rivera, who explained that “Boulder Over the Cliff” was chosen for its contribution to Latin American playwriting. “For the highly experimental nature of its dramatic structure; for its construction of characters on different, simultaneous levels; for the way it handles action and the presentation of conflict.”

The play be Jimmy Valdez will be published by the National Editorial Office, in the Collection Ultramar Letters, and will be formally presented as part of the program of the XII International Book Fair of Santa Domingo 2010.

Valdez resides in New York and his has been published in anthologies, in printed and on-line reviews. His work as a writer covers articles on politics and culture, and has been broadly published.

He studied political economics in the Henry George School and has a teaching degree (Social Studies), in the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo. His collection of poems “For everyone, regardless of those who smoke” is one of his more acclaimed publications.

The purpose of the literary contest Ultramar Letters, created by former Commissioner of Culture Dr. Franklin Gutierrez, is to give incentives, recognition and promote the literary creations of Dominican writers who, for different reasons, have established residency abroad.

The announcement was made in the events salon Andres Francisco Requena, of the Dominican Commissioner of Culture in the United States, located at number 541 West 145th St., second floor, almost on the corner of Broadway, in Manhatten.

The writer Jimmy Valdez, center, winner of the Ultramar Literary Prize awarded by the Dominican Commissioner of Culture in the United States. This year the competition was in theatre. With Valdez are Carlos Sanchez, Commissioner of Culture, and the jury Julissa Rivera, Abriel Marat and Hector Luis Rivera