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Basque poet and writer from Ondarroa (Biscay) Kirmen Uribe was awarded the National Narrative Prize for Literature 2009 thanks to his first novel Bilbao-New York-Bilbao.

This endowed award is accompanied by a prize of 20,000 euros annually given by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and it is aimed to appraise works written in any of the official state languages which have been published in the Spanish State in 2008. The acclaimed Basque poet Uribe has written poetry, essays and books for children, but Bilbao-New York-Bilbao is his very first novel.

The jury was presided over by Books, Archives and Libraries general manager Rogelio Blanco, and also counted on Jose Luis Borau, proposed by the Royal Spanish Academy of Language; Xosé Luis Axeitos, from the Galician Royal Academy; Jon Kortazar, from Euskaltzaindia, or the Basque Language Academy; Alexandre Broch, from the Institute of Catalan Studies; Andres Martinez Sanchez, from the Writers'' Association (ACE); Ramon Loureiro, from the Spanish Association of Literary Critics; Camilo Jose Cela Conde, from the Conference of Spanish Universities Vice-chancellors; Marco Schwartz, from the Federation of Associations of Journalists in Spain (FAPE); Alicia Giménez , from the Ministry of Culture, and the last two winners, Juan Jose Millas (2008) and Vicente Molina Foix (2007).