Julian Barnes 2026 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature

At its meeting in Oviedo, the Jury for the 2026 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature, composed of María Sheila Cremaschi, María Dueñas Vinuesa, Marcos Giralt Torrente, Raquel Lanseros Sánchez, Lola Larumbe Doral, Antonio Lucas Herrero, Inés Martín Rodrigo, Sergio del Molino Molina, Berta Piñán Suárez, Marisol Schulz Manaut, Sergio Vila-Sanjuán Robert and Jorge Volpi Escalante, chaired by Santiago Muñoz Machado and with Fernando Rodríguez Lafuente acting as secretary, has decided to confer the 2026 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature on British writer Julian Barnes. 

The Jury has highlighted his standing as an extraordinary storyteller and essayist, endowed with humour and irony, as well as, in his own words, a “melancholic optimism” and “cheerful pessimism”. Barnes offers a lucid, warm-hearted and compassionate vision of humankind, using memory as a shaper of identity without renouncing imagination and with love as an essential principle.

Employing a European perspective, his oeuvre reworks the history of literature, art, music and even gastronomy, achieving a unique style that sets him apart within a generation of particularly brilliant British authors who have shaped contemporary literature.

Oviedo, 10th June 2026