Mario Benedetti (1920–2009) was a Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet. He is considered one of the most important twentieth-century Latin American writers. He won the Queen Sofia Ibero-American Poetry Award in 1999, and the José Martí prize in 2001. He was the author of many works of poetry, essays, drama, and fiction, including the novel Springtime in a Broken Mirror (The New Press).