Argentina, Cuba, Mexico and Colombia are the countries which sent the most entries to the 55th Casa de las Américas Literary Prize competition that got underway on the island Monday.

On this occasion the prestigious competition will pay tribute to late Latin American writers Julio Cortázar, Octavio Paz, José Revueltas, Julia de Burgos, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Efraín Huerta and Nicanor Parra in the centennial of their births. The writers were part of the history of the Havana based cultural institution which is celebrating the 55th anniversary of its publishing house and literary prize event.

The competition jury for 2014, whose reading sessions began on Monday in the south central city of Cienfuegos, is made up of 22 prestigious writers, researchers and experts from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Saint Martin and Venezuela.

The intellectuals will choose the winning works in literary genre or categories, such as short-story, theater, artistic-literary essay, Brazilian literature and Caribbean literature in English or Creole, and are also scheduled to give an award on women’s studies which, on its 20th anniversary, will pay homage to the centennial of the birth of great Cuban poetess Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda. The Casa de las Américas Literary Prize was called for the first time in April, 1959, with the objective of encouraging and spreading literature on the continent.