Alfaguara Award has become a referent of quality literary prizes awarded to books written in Spanish language. For the first time this prize is awarded to a Miami resident Antonio Orlando Rodriguez. He was born in Cuba. He is a writer, editor and journalist. He graduated of journalism from the University of La Habana. He has published a number of books
for kids, youth people and novels for adults; among them Aprendices de brujo, the short stories Strip-tease, Querido Drácula and the theater play El León y la Domadora. His bibliography includes also literary research works like Literatura infantil de América Latina, Panorama histórico de la literatura infantil en América Latina and el Caribe, Puertas a la lectura and Escuela y poesía.