Café Gijón

[4] The café is opposite both a railway station of the same name and the National Library of Spain (BNE).

[1][4] Despite modest beginnings, after the Spanish Civil War it became a meeting-place for intellectuals, writers and artists collectively known as Generation of '36.

It was also known by Hollywood stars and foreign writers such as Ava Gardner, Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, George Sanders, and Truman Capote.

The idea, conceived in 1949 by Fernando Fernán Gómez, Gerardo Diego, Camilo José Cela, Enrique Jardiel Poncela and other leaders of the Tertulias was to promote those meetings and to create an independent prize to compete with Nadal Prize, which was organised by commercial publishers.

Although the award was originally managed by the Café Gijón, and is now financed by the tourism agency of the northern port city of Gijón in Asturias, it is only concerned with the spread of quality literature and the promotion of authors whose work may not otherwise be published for lack of funds.