Antonio Machado Train Awards 2013
31/10/2013Mercedes de Vega, author of the novel El profesor de inglés (The English Professor), was awarded with an honorable mention, for her short story The Last Time I saw My Brother, in the Antonio Machado Train Awards 2013, for the Spanish Railway Foundation and the Antonio Machado Spanish Foundation. The announcement and presentation of the Train Awards took place on the 28th of October, the commemorative date of “Train Day” in memory of the first functioning railway on the peninsula, connecting Barcelona and Mataró. For this year’s awards 849 participants presented themselves from 21 countries and with 981 books, 366 poems and 615 short stories. The poems and short story selected as finalists have been compiled in a book that will be published in December 2013 as part of the Train Awards collection.
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Víctor del Ýrbol has been awarded the 2016 Nadal Prize with "La víspera de casi todo"
18/01/2016Víctor del Árbol has been awarded the 72nd Nadal Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in Spanish literature, organized by the Destino imprint of Grupo Planeta. The winner book is La víspera de casi todo (The Eve of Almost Everything) In 2006 he won the Tiflos Prize for Literature with El peso de los muertos. With his novel La tristeza del Samurai (Alrevés, 2011), he was the first Spaniard to obtain the Prix du polar Européen, awarded by the French publication Le Point. With Un millón de gotas, (Destino, 2014) Víctor del Árbol is again awarded in France the Prix de Littérature Policière 2015. “Victor writes with guts and makes pure literary viscerality”CARLES GELI, El País
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Canción de antiguos amantes
LAURA RESTREPO'S NEW NOVEL A double love story in a world on the verge of collapse, by the winner of the Alfaguara Awards, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Grinzane Cavour. "Every myth that is born is reborn. Every myth that incarnates reincarnates." Obsessed with the Queen of Sheba, Bos Mutas, a young contemporary writer, sets out on a journey around the world to find her, just as historical figures of the likes of Solomon, Thomas Aquinas and Gérard de Nerval had done over the centuries. And although the Queen of Sheba is elusive, Bos Mutas finds in her place the very earthy Zahra Bayda, a Somali midwife. Thus, the real time of the present runs parallel to the immemorial time of the myth. A work of fiction based on the author's travels through the lands of Yemen, Ethiopia and the Somali border—the magical and fierce geography of what was once the kingdom of Saba—, with Doctors Without Borders. This novel is a beautiful kaleidoscope, a gateway to fascinating worlds, a daring amalgamation of genres, eras, secular and biblical rhythms, cruelty and solidarity, love and war, pain and healing. Laura Restrepo accompanies, with this moving story, the eternal journey of migrant women, who despite tripping and stumbling, get up, keep going, learn to look further and further ahead and cross the borders of time and space. Song of Ancient Lovers sketches a seductive proposal: what if the great anthem of the end of time is not the Apocalypse? What if it was the Song of Songs instead? The critics have said: "When the level of writing reaches as far as Laura Restrepo took it, you must doff your hat." Joseph Saramago "Her fascination with popular culture and her impeccable humor [...] spare her novels any temptation toward pathos or melodrama and instill unmistakable reading pleasures." Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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Alcalá, Fernando
Fernando Alcalá Suárez (Cáceres, 1980) loves nothing more than telling stories and consuming them, whether in books, TV series, movies, or video games. Although he prefers to live among elves and dragons, life has forced him to pretend to be an adult, and today he teaches English at a high school in Cáceres. He has three cats: Melon, Pineapple, and Lychee. He won the VII Iberian Cultural Prize for Young Artists in the literature category, an international competition for Spanish-speaking artists of all nationalities. Among other achievements, he has received the Extremadura Creation Grant three times, which encouraged him to write Ne obliviscaris and Summer Storm (Edelvives, 2010 and 2011), as well as Carlos, Paula, and Company, which took second place in the I HQÑ Contest and was published by Harper Collins Ibérica in 2013. Together with Geòrgia Costa, forming the Costa Alcalá duo, he won the Kelvin 505 and El Templo de las Mil Puertas awards with Heir, the first volume of The Second Revolution trilogy (Montena, Penguin Random House, 2017, 2018, and 2019). They have also written Good Sisters (Elastic Books, 2019) and the Prodigies series, three standalone novels set in the same universe, published by Nocturna Editorial between 2020 and 2022. Additionally, they are the authors of the children’s series Look Out, Lice (Montena, 2019 and 2020) and several novels published on Fiction Express, such as Journey to the Center of the Volcano, which won the readers’ choice award for best children’s novel on the platform in 2022. In autumn 2023, they published their first novel for adults, The Hunter’s Moon (Umbriel Editores), and in June 2024 Orphans of the Wanderer (Puck Editorial), the first part of Shadowweavers, a duology whose second volume will be released in Spain and Latin America in the first quarter of 2025. That same year, they will launch Nessa, Princess with Animallibres, Bromera, and Algar, a series of graphic novels for early readers. And that’s all for now... Fer has many projects underway, both with Geòrgia Costa and on his own, but he still can’t talk about them.
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A Thousand Drops by Víctor del Ýrbol, shorlisted for the Grand Prix de Litteratures Policières 2015
02/07/2015The novel A Thousand Drops by Víctor del Árbol is still a success a year after its publication. After 5 editions in Spain (Destino) and 2 editions in France, (Actes Sud) its nomination for one of the most prestigious awards in France: Le Grand Prix de Litteratures Policières 2015 was announced this week. The book by Victor del Árbol has achieved great reviews from the press and is shortlisted for this Prize along with works by other renowed authors of the noir and detective literature like James Ellroy, William Bayer or Don Winslow. The winner will be announced on September 23, but just being shortlisted is a great honor.
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Méndez, Roxana
Roxana Méndez (San Salvador, 1979). Writer and translator. She holds a degree in English Philology and a Master's in Spanish and Latin American Literature. In 2023, the New York Public Library included her book The Market on its list of Best Books for Kids of 2022. That same year, she won the José Hierro International Poetry Prize in Spain for her book The Bathers. In 2019, she received the Cuatrogatos Foundation Award in Miami for her book Flying Machines, and that same year, she won the Ciudad de Melilla Christmas Story Award in Spain and the Central American Children’s Story Award from the Books for Children Foundation. In 2012, she received the Alhambra American Poetry Prize in Spain, and in her country she was awarded the Grand Master of Poetry prize, along with national narrative and children's poetry awards. She has published books such as Caro and Lucy on Garbage Island (Children’s Fiction, Fiction Express, 2024), The Bathers (Poetry, José Hierro University and RTVE, 2022), The Market (Children's Fiction, Books for Children, Nicaragua, 2022), The Mechanical Cat (Children's Fiction, DPI, El Salvador, 2021), Olivia and the Screeching Cart (Children's Fiction, Piedrasanta, Guatemala, 2021), Flying Machines (Children's Poetry, Valparaíso Ed., 2018), The Rain of 1979 (Valparaíso Ed., Spain, 2018), The Secret Book (Children's Poetry, DPI, El Salvador, 2017), The Sky in the Window (Poetry, Valparaíso Ed., Spain, 2012 and Valparaíso USA, 2017), Clara and Clarissa (Children's Fiction, Loqueleo, Guatemala, 2012), Mnemosyne (DPI, El Salvador, 2008 and Bombadil Ed., Sweden, 2011), and Memory (Poetry, DPI, El Salvador, 2004). Upcoming: Ana Glass (Children’s Fiction, El Naranjo Publishing, Mexico, 2025) WEBSITE: roxanamendez.net
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"Baudelaire's Flowers", by Gonzalo Garrido, reissued in DeBolsillo
08/03/2014Las flores de Baudelaire (Baudelaire's Flowers), the first novel by Gonzalo Garrido, published in 2012 by Alrevés, was reprinted last month in its paperback edition by DeBolsillo, which is part of Penguin Random House group. This news just goes to prove how Garrido's career is growing. His first novel, a blend of mistery and history that deals with treason and its presence as a guiding force in our lives, became an unexpected success. The novel (now, in its third edition) has appeared repeatedly in the best seller lists, has been finalist of awards such as the Memorial Silverio Cañada (granted by the Semana Negra de Gijón) and has received the praise of brilliant authors such as Eduardo Mendoza. Las flores de Baudelaire is just the first step in a career that we predict as more than solid, and that has a bright future.
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Carmen Amoraga, winner of the Nadal Prize for "La vida era eso"
07/01/2014In its 70th edition, the journalist and writer Carmen Amoraga (Picanya, Valencia, 1969) received the Nadal Prize for La vida era eso, an "intimistic" novel that deals with love, loss and social networks, "the value of what we have lived and what is yet to be lived", and that was presented, as usual, under a pen-name, and with the title Senza fine. The novel's main character, Giuliana, loses her husband and has to take care of her two children. She unexpectedly finds relief in the friends her husband had in the social networks he liked. The jury has highlighted the way that Amoraga uses "with a fine ear contemporary language", the work's modernity in dealing with "new ways of communicating and relating to other people via social networks" and how it achieves a difficult goal: using humor to deal with loss. The author, which was finalist of the Nadal in 2007 with her novel Algo tan parecido al amor, and has received other awards such as the Ateneo Joven de Sevilla or the Valencian Literary Critiques Award, was thrilled to receive the award from Ana María Matute, saying she had never imagined it. Amoraga dedicated the award to her "high school literature teacher, and to all the teacherS that are living through these hard times", and wore a badge to protest for the closing of Canal 9, in which she worked in the past. La vida era eso will appear soon in Destino.
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José María Merino awarded with the National Narrative Prize (Spain's Culture Ministery)
28/10/2013The Literary Agency Antonia Kerrigan wants to congratulate the author José María Merino for receiving, the well deserved, Premio Nacional de Narrativa 2013 (National Narrative Award 2013) for his novel; The River of Eden (El río de edén) published in 2012 by Editorial Alfaguara. José María Merino is a member of the Real Academia Española (Spanish Royal Academy) and has received various awards for his works that include, narrative, young adult literature, short stories, essays and poems. His first novel, The Novel by Andrés Choz, (La Novela de Andrés Choz) published in 1976, won the Novel and Short Story Award. In 1985 he was distinguished with the Critics Awards for his novel; The Dark Shore, (La orilla oscura). In 1993 he was given the National Young Adult and Children’s Literature Award for; I’m Not a Book, (No soy un libro). The novel Lucrecia’s Visions, (Las visiones de Lucrecia) (1996) received the Miguel Delibes Narrative award. In 2004, the novel The Heir, (El heredero) won the Ramón Gómez de la Serna Award and The Place without Guilt, (El lugar sin culpa), won the Torrente Ballester Award. The River of Eden; (El río del edén) has also won the critic Award of Castilla and León. The jury highlighted The River of Eden as: “a book in which the author has adopted a second auto-reflexive voice in order to bring life to a familiar micro-cosmos, that revolves around a boy with a disability and the crisis that his appearance provokes on family life. It is a technically risky work that has been well resolved, and that gains tension as the story advances and its crucial problems, like the right to a dignified death, find themselves perfectly exposed.”
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Sergio Vila-Sanjuán Nadal Novel Award 2013
08/01/2013The Nadal Novel Award is a literary award for the best in-edit work selected by the publishing house, Ediciones Destino (a sub-label of the Grupo Planeta). Its notoriety is established as the oldest literary award granted in Spain and in the category of the writers who have been acknowledged with this prestige are important Spanish literary figures from the 20th century. This year the winner of the 69th edition of the Nadal Awards is the journalist and writer Sergio Vila-Sanjuán for his novel Estaba en el aire, (It was in the air), which will be published by Ediciones Destino on the 12th of February. The novel takes place in Barcelona at the beginning of the 60’s when the “consumer society” was born, it narrates the story of four characters who converge in a clenching ending. It’s true, that his first novel; Una heredera de Barcelona (2010), (An heiress of Barcelona), also passes in Barcelona, in the 20’s and part of the narrations are of his grandfather. Estaba en el aire, describes Barcelona at the beginning of the 60’s and is inspired by memories of his father and of his childhood. “I come from a family of three generations of journalists, but they didn’t write about their lives only about the lives of others. Mi first novel narrates a moment of my grandfather’s career and of my father. I believe that, one day, I’ll end up writing about myself, but first I preferred to pass through my family tree .” (El Pais, 8, January 2013).
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Dueñas and Palma nominated for the IMPAC Dublin
14/11/2012In the 12th of November the list of nominated novels was presented for the; “Internacional IMPAC Dublín Literary Award, 2013”. The list, containing 154 titles sellected by public libaries from 120 cities in 44 countries and 19 languages, will compete for one of the most international literary awards. Among the selected include; “El tiempo entre costuras” (The Seamstress/ The Time Between) by María Dueñas and “El mapa del tiempo” (The map of Time) by Félix J. Palma The selected titles are considered novels of high literary quality. The list of finalists (maximum 10 titles) will be made public in April 2013 and the winner, will be selected by an international group of five judges. We are anxiously awaiting April to learn the results of this selection. In the meantime we congratulate both in-house authors for this grand acknowledgement.
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Jesús Gil Vilda awarded for best screen-play
09/11/2012The full-length film “A puerta fría” (To the Cold Door) was triumphant last October when it was presented with the awards for both, best screen-play and best actor, Antonio Dechent, at the Spanish film festival of Toulouse. This is the second work by the writer Jesús Gil Vilda, (Crisis of the Grand Evil, The Aleph) as principal screen-play writer. In both occasions he collaborated with Xavi Puebla as director and co-screenplay writer. This award is the overall result from the critics of the Malaga Film Festival 2012 and of those obtained from the primer and work, Welcome to Farwelll-Gutmann, in the Montreal Film Festival (2008) and the Gaudí award from the Catalan Film Academy (2009). For more information about Jesús Vil Vilda and his works, here is an interview for Página 2: http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/pagina-2/pagina-2-entrevista-jesus-gil-vilda-crisis-gran-mal/1044374/
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