Thiruvananthapuram:
Noted Puerto Rican poet Jack Agueros has been selected for the Asan World Prize 2012, instituted in memory of Malayalam poet Kumaran Asan.
The award, comprising Rs three lakh, a memento and a citation, is instituted by the Asan Memorial Association at Kayikkara, the birth place of Kumaran Asan.
Mr Agueros' children Natalia and Marcel Agueros have agreed to come from Puerto Rico to receive the award on behalf of their father who is not keeping well, the Association office-bearers told a press meet.
As Mr Agueros was not in a position to make it to Kerala, the organisers had invited Latin American poet Aracelis Girmay to deliver the Asan World Prize lecture during the award presentation on May 5, they said.
A week-long literary festival "Sahitheeyam 2012" would be conducted to coincide with the 140th birth anniversary of Kumaran Asan as part of the award ceremony.
Kumaran Asan, who was born in1873 and died in 1924, triggered a revolution in Malayalam poetry in the first quarter of the 20th century by transforming it from the metaphysical to the lyrical.