Xavier Nueno, born in Barcelona in 1990, has won the 54th Premio Anagrama de Ensayo, €10,000, with “La revuelta de los copistas. Cómo el conocimiento perdió el juicio.” Among 340 manuscripts from 24 countries. The prize is awarded. It is not the Chilean launch. It is not a law.

La Tercera, 21 October: the book is in Spanish bookshops from Wednesday. In Chile, early 2027. A distribution calendar. Not today’s Chilean shelf. A doctorate in visual and media studies from Harvard; he teaches at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. The thesis, in short: big technology firms have monetised the stock held in libraries and sell it back, on subscription. A press reading. Not a court ruling.

Anagrama, on its site: of the manuscripts left for the last deliberations, six reached the final. EFE, on Tuesday: four reached the last deliberations. Two counts. Jury: Jordi Gracia, Pau Luque, Daniel Rico, Remedios Zafra, editors Silvia Sesé and Isabel Obiols. Gracia speaks of the origin of AI’s “simulacrum of knowledge.” Luque: he challenges the algorithm as a form of knowledge. Zafra: the dignity of intellectual work. Jury quotes. Not a statute.

EFE, from Barcelona, 20 October: Nueno has worked on the essay for about ten years. Libraries, he said, are “under siege”; if the giants get their way, the library stays inside their databases. Companies “resell us, by subscription, our own library, calling it new knowledge.” A press conference. Not a judgment.

Anagrama puts the book in shops on Wednesday, 21 October. ISBN 978-84-339-5101-4, the Argumentos series, €21.90. A catalogue price. Not the Santiago launch.

Source consulted: Essayist Xavier Nueno wins the 54th Anagrama Essay Prize — La Tercera.

Image: the Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, 31 October 2019, Teresa Grau Ros, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. A library, not the Chilean launch.

Sources consulted: Anagrama Essay Prize — Editorial Anagrama.