Due to the measures taken by the health authorities to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including the need to maintain social distancing, the organizers of the Regino Pedroso National Poetry Contest decided to postpone its 19th annual edition to 2021, and to extend the awarding of the winners to October 20, the date that coincides with the Cuban Culture Day.

The nineteenth annual edition of this contest maintains its rules announced in early 2020. The poets who have already sent their works through the regular (postal) mail -no works are received via e-mail- will be evaluated by the selected jury, which will meet in September of next year. The deadline for admission will be August 1, 2021.

This meeting, in homage to the first Cuban proletarian poet, is sponsored by the Trabajadores newspaper, the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC) and the Instituto Cubano del Libro (ICL), with the co-sponsorship of the Office of Community Work of the Association of Cuban Writers and Artists (Uneac) and the cultural project Enmarcarte directed by the renowned artist of the visual arts, Doctor Honoris Causa Erik Varela Ravelo.

Please note that up to three unpublished poems can be sent. Only works processed by computers or typed will be admitted, in original and two copies -two sheets of paper (40 verses)-. The theme is free. Authors must send a biographical sketch, their personal location, and the permanent number of their identity card.

Three prizes will be awarded and as many mentions as the jury deems appropriate, whose decision will be final. Also the Extraordinary Prize of the CTC to the work that best expresses the cultural, economic and social conquests consolidated by Cuban workers.

Prizes will consist of: publication of the poem in the Trabajadores newspaper, a work of art, a diploma, and recent editions of the ICL.