El Grand Balam, sometimes referred to as The Borchard Prize, provides a mid-career writer with $150,000 of support over three years. The award’s title reflects the multicultural and multilinguistic emphasis of the center. "“Balam” is the Yucatec and Tzeltal dialect pronunciations of the Mayan word for jaguar, a sacred animal to the Maya people. Recipients of the award will have an established publication history, will have received significant critical praise, and will demonstrate the promise of future accomplishment. Winners are strongly encouraged to attend the Oaxaca Literary Retreat and Encuentro in each of the three years of the award, with a formal award ceremony and celebration to be held during the first year to recognize the recipient’s achievement.
There is no application for this award. Potential candidates are selected from the public by the Nominating Committee during winter and spring. The Committee then proposes a winner and two potential alternates to the Foundation Board of Directors for final approval in May. The winner is notified in June. Only citizens or residents of Canada, Mexico, and the United States are eligible.
El Grand Balam Prize
2026-2028
Christian Kiefer
... for his syntactical virtuosity, structural elegance, intellectual clarity, and moral weight in witness to the human heart and its capacity for redemptive grace.
El Grand Balam Prize
2023-2025
Guadalupe Nettel
...for her intimate psychological explorations of individuals marginalized from themselves by an often cruel, inexplicable, and wondrous world.
El Grand Balam Prize
2020-2022
Briceida Cuevas Cob
...for her rendering of contemporary domestic life as an expression of cultural continuity, lived memory, Maya cosmology, and linguistic vibrancy.
