«Es momento de aferrarse a las letras»: literary competitions as a space for legitimising women's writing in Equatorial Guinea

Abstract

This study examines female-authored literature in Equatorial Guinea, a field that, despite recent advances, remains marked by critical gaps and uneven visibility of women writers. A review of literature highlights the fragility of the Equatoguinean publishing market, which has constrained the dissemination of works, leaving many female voices at the margins of literary institutionalization. In this context, literary competitions function as crucial spaces for recognition and circulation, fostering the emergence of new authors. Focusing on the poem «Trimobe» by Samia Esther Adá Edú Onguene, awarded in the Certamen Literario 12 de Octubre, the study explores writing as an act of both personal and collective identity affirmation, and argues that such competitions are central to the processes of visibility and canon formation, thus encouraging the rise of a new generation of Equatoguinean women writers.