The City Council of Cerdanyola del Vallès and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona announced yesterday the winners of the 2024 literary awards. Carla Clúa Alcón (Reus) with the work Pausa, sucre, Sevilla, presented under the pseudonym “América”, is the winner of the XV short story prize for young people “Caterina Albert”, endowed with 500 euros. Josep Antoni Aguilar Àvila (València), with the work Ballar amb els espectres, presented under the pseudonym “Sparverius”; and Josep Domènech Ponsatí (Sant Feliu de Guíxols), with the work Eixint de fer, presented under the pseudonym “Armand Polito”, are the ex-aequo winners of the XXIX poetry prize “Miquel Martí i Pol”, endowed with 1,000 euros. Miquel Ribas Figueras (Cabrils) with the work Ilha do Farol, presented under the pseudonym “Nuno Bolotas”, was the winner of the XXX novel prize “Valldaura-Memorial Pere Calders”, endowed with 3,000 euros. In this edition, a total of 192 works have opted for the prizes, of which 25 have participated in the short story, 85 in the poetry and 82 in the novel prize. These figures are the highest since 2002, when the organizers decided to merge their respective contests and start their call for entries jointly. The winning works will be published by the UAB Publications Service and will be presented in November in Cerdanyola del Vallès.
During the ceremony, Carmen Alcolea, member of the jury of the Short Narrative Prize, was in charge of reading the minutes of the meeting of the jury of this same award, where she said that the winning story Pausa, sucre, Sevilla stands out for its “careful style, evocative lexicon, own idiolect and interior monologue”.
For his part, Joan Carles Marset, director of the Publications Service of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and secretary of the jury of the Poetry Prize, explained that this is the first time that a prize has been awarded ex-aequo to two participants. The editor argued that the jury unanimously agreed on the high quality of both works. Specifically, on Ballar amb els espectres, the jury highlights the narrative dimension that gives the poems, with a very intelligent use of different mythological legacies. Likewise, with respect to Eixint de fer, the jury highlighted aspects such as its lexical richness and use of stylistic resources, or its sharp, intellectual and sensual sense of humor.
Finally, Marset read the deliberation of the Novel Prize, where the jury has defended that Ilha do Farol is worthy of the prize for being well written, having a rich language, a prolix style and using the pretext of the apocalypse or the end of the world with a contained and quite original approach. Likewise, the members of the jury agreed that the work shows a taste for narrative, branching out into collateral stories, and that it also makes a notable use of humor or sarcasm, which serves to include elements of social criticism.
The awards ceremony was also attended by representatives of the two institutions organizing the awards, including Javier Lafuente Sancho, Rector of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Rosa María Sebastián, Vice Rector of Innovation, Transfer and Entrepreneurship at the UAB; Margarita Freixas y Alás, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UAB; Carlos Cordón, Mayor of the City Council of Cerdanyola del Vallès; and David González Chanca, Councilor of Culture, Communication and EMD of Bellaterra of the City Council of Cerdanyola del Vallès.
The actor Carles Cruces presented the event, which was enlivened by the performances of the UAB Chamber Choir and the poetic recital Marçal sentida, by Sofia Oliva (alumni and predoctoral student of the UAB) and Laia Solé (student of the UB), who paid tribute to the work of Àngel Guimerà and Maria-Mercè Marçal, respectively. In addition, the awards ceremony was broadcast live on the YouTube channel of the UAB, where the video of the event will also be published soon.
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