Exiled Nicaraguan author Sergio Ramírez will formally enter the Royal Spanish Academy in Madrid on Sunday, November 15, to take up Chair L.
Ramírez, who was born in 1942 and won the Cervantes Prize in 2017, will occupy the seat that remained vacant following the death of Mario Vargas Llosa on April 13, 2025. During the formal ceremony in the Spanish capital, Ramírez will deliver his induction address, titled Un novelista ecuménico.
The plenary assembly of the Royal Spanish Academy elected Ramírez as an academician during its session on Thursday, May 21, 2026. His candidacy was the only one submitted for the position, complying with academy statutes that require the formal endorsement of three sitting members.
His nomination received endorsements from former academy director Víctor García de la Concha, writer Luis Mateo Díez, and current academy director Santiago Muñoz Machado. Díez, who won the Cervantes Prize in 2023, will deliver the official welcome address on behalf of the institution.
Forced Exile from Nicaragua
During the presentation of the candidate's merits, Díez described Ramírez as a fundamental, generous, and committed writer. Díez also emphasized that the Nicaraguan novelist lives in forced exile due to the dictatorial regime ruling his homeland.
Ramírez has lived in Madrid since 2021, when the Nicaraguan public prosecutor's office issued an arrest warrant against him. Authorities alleged that he incited hatred through his novel Tongolele no sabía bailar, a work that focuses directly on political repression in Nicaragua.
Ramírez, who was born in the Nicaraguan town of Masatepe, has since acquired Spanish nationality and made his permanent home in Spain following the legal proceedings initiated against him by his country's judicial authorities.
Decades of Acclaimed Literary Work
Ramírez ranks among the most prominent figures in contemporary Latin American narrative. His career spans more than 70 books, including novels, short story collections, personal chronicles, and essays, alongside extensive work as a journalist.
His notable novels include the 1998 work Margarita, está linda la mar and the 1987 title Adiós, muchachos. His books have been translated into 20 languages, and his journalistic work earned him the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Award in 2026.
His literary recognition began decades earlier, winning the Dashiell Hammett Award in 1988 for his novel Castigo Divino and the Alfaguara Novel Prize for Margarita, está linda la mar. He also received the José Donoso Ibero-American Prize for Letters in Chile in 2011 and the Carlos Fuentes International Prize in Mexico in 2014.
In 2017, Ramírez received the Cervantes Prize, widely regarded as the most prestigious lifetime achievement honour in Spanish language literature. Established in 1976 and awarded annually by the Spanish Ministry of Culture, the prize recognises authors whose lifetime work has enriched the Hispanic literary heritage. Alongside his international honours, Ramírez is a full member of the Nicaraguan Academy of the Language.
Royal Spanish Academy and Chair L
The Royal Spanish Academy, known by its Spanish acronym RAE, was founded in Madrid in 1713 to maintain the standards and rules of the Spanish language. The academy assigns each of its lifetime members a specific seat identified by an uppercase or lowercase letter of the Spanish alphabet.
Chair L became vacant following the death of Mario Vargas Llosa on April 13, 2025. Vargas Llosa, who held the chair until his death, was one of the central figures of the twentieth century Latin American literary boom.
Ramírez will officially take possession of Chair L during the Sunday ceremony after reading his entrance speech. The upcoming session marks the formal succession of one of the academy's most prestigious literary chairs between two major novelists of the language.
