Following the death of Michael Jacobs in 2014, the Gabo Foundation and Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias initiated the Michael Jacobs Travel Writing Award. This year, commemorating the 11th anniversary of the English writer's passing, a new edition of the call for entries has been launched, funded by the Michael Jacobs Foundation for Travel Writing, a non-profit organization created by Michael's widow and brother to honour his legacy and promote travel writing in Spain and Latin America.

The award, now in its 11th edition has the goal of encouraging travel chronicles, and will award US$10,000 for a book project or travel article on Latin America or Spain, to be published in Spanish or English.

The jury, which this year has two new members, will take into account the narrative quality and journalistic depth of the projects to choose the winner. For Michael Jacobs, travel journalism goes beyond the simple anecdotal experience and for this reason we are looking for works capable of awakening the five senses and opening the mind of any reader.

The official announcement of the winner will be made at the Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias 2025, which will take place from January 30 to February 2.

» The award

$10,000 US dollars as an incentive to finance the research and writing of their article or book. The amount includes the taxes to be paid by the beneficiary and the sponsoring institutions. The award will be given as follows: the first half ($5,000) when the winner is announced and the other half ($5,000) when the project is completed and submitted for publication.

The winner will be invited to participate as a judge for the next edition of the Michael Jacobs Travel Writing Award.

» Requirements

Journalists and writers of any nationality may apply as long as their work covers travel writing set in Spanish Latin America or Spain, and written in either Spanish or English.

An autobiography of no more than 800 words (in Spanish or English) describing your experience as a travel journalist and your motivation to apply for the award. Conventional resumes or CVs will not be considered.

A detailed presentation of the project (article or book) that includes a project description, timetable, and expected itinerary. The article or book must be written in Spanish or English.

The project does not necessarily have to be completed, as the grant seeks to support an ongoing project, but at least a fragment of the work must be submitted, as the jury must evaluate the author's narrative skills.

A piece by the author published in print or digitally. The candidate must have at least one article or book published at the time of submitting the application.

How to apply

To apply for the Michael Jacobs Travel Writing Grant go to https://fundaciongabo.org

Important: Only online entries made through the registration form on the Gabo Foundation's website will be valid until Friday, December 15, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. (Colombian time).

» The jury

Miguel Velárdez

Hailing from Tucumán, Argentina, Miguel Velárdez is a seasoned journalist and journalism teacher. His journey began in 1995, with his first collaboration at La Gaceta, a newspaper he joined in 1997. Over a span of twenty-five years, Velárdez made significant contributions across various sections, including politics, travel, crime and the paper's digital edition. Beyond his newspaper endeavors, his chronicles have graced the pages of publications such as the magazine Brando and Tucumán Zeta. He secured the first prize in the 2022 Relatos sobre Malvinas contest, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War. He has been a fellow at the Gabo Foundation and the Institute of the Americas in San Diego. He was the winner of the Michael Jacobs Travel Writing Award in 2024.

Teresita Goyeneche (Colombia)

Journalist and writer. She has worked for organizations such as the Leo Espinosa Foundation, the Gabo Foundation, and Mutante; and has written for media outlets including El Malpensante, the Spanish-language edition of Vice, and El Espectador. She is an International Relations graduate from the Universidad del Norte and holds a master's degree in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Columbia University. She is currently a doctoral student at the City University of New York (CUNY) and a professor at Hunter College.

In 2017, Teresita was a finalist for the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) awards in the Chronicle category, an intern of the Beca Gabo in 2018, and received recognition from the jury of the Simón Bolívar National Journalism Awards in the Chronicle category in 2022 for her travel writing piece “Volver”. Her first book, “La personalidad de los pelícanos” (Tusquets), was published in 2022.

Mar Abad (Spain)

She is a journalist and writer. Editorial director and co-founder of the podcast label El Extraordinario. She is the author of 'Romanones, una zarzuela del poder en 37 actos' (Libros del K.O.), 'Antiguas pero modernas' (Libros del K.O.), 'El folletín ilustrado' (Lunwerg) and 'De estraperlo a postureo' (Larousse).

She has received the following awards: Archiletras de la Lengua 2022 Award, ForoTransfiere Journalism Award for Science and Technology Communication 2022, Don Quijote Journalism Award 2020, Miguel Delibes Award 2019, Colombine International Journalism Award 2018 and Accenture Journalism Award 2017 in the innovation category.

Jon Lee Anderson (United States)

He began his career as a journalist in Peru in 1979 as a member of the weekly The Lima Times and since then has specialized in Latin American politics and modern conflicts, including those in Afghanistan and Iraq. He has developed his own school of profile writing, having developed portraits of important global personalities such as Fidel Castro, Gabriel García Márquez, Augusto Pinochet, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, and Hugo Chávez. His books include Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life (1997), The Lion's Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan (2002), and The Fall of Baghdad (2004). He has also written articles for The New York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, El País, and Harper's Magazine.

In 2013, Jon Lee Anderson received the Maria Moors Cabot Award which every year is granted by Columbia University in New York. Since 2000, he has been a teacher at the Fundación Gabo and since 2014 a member of the jury of the Michael Jacobs Travel Writing Grant.

Sabrina Duque

She is a journalist, columnist and translator. She lived for four years in Lisbon, Portugal, where she wrote –among other chronicles and profiles- about grumpy waiters, the inventor of the lobotomy and the education of a future soccer star. She lived for two years in Brazil, where she has published texts about feminist cartoons, grandmothers in bikinis and bankrupt millionaires. She now lives in Nicaragua and has decided to climb all its volcanoes and tell the life of those who live at their feet.

Her stories have been translated into Portuguese, Italian and English. In 2017 she published Lama (Turbina Publishing), a chronicle about the lives of the survivors of Bento Rodrigues and Paracatú de Baixo, towns in the interior of Brazil buried by toxic mud that overflowed from a mining waste dam. In addition, she has published in Folha de S. Paulo (Brazil), O Estado de S. Paulo (Brazil), Internazionale (Italy), Storybench.org (USA), GK.city (Ecuador) and Brecha (Uruguay). She was the winner of the Michael Jacobs Travel Writing Award in 2018.

After Michael Jacobs’s death in 2014, the FNPI (Gabriel García Márquez New Journalism Foundation) and the Cartagena Hay Festival—who have enjoyed a decade-long partnership—decided to organise the Michael Jacobs Travel Writing Award as an homage to the British writer. The award enjoys the support of the Michael Jacobs Foundation.