Go to main content
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

The UAB and the Cerdanyola City Council hold the annual literary awards ceremony for novels, short stories and poetry

28 May 2024
Share via WhatsApp Share via e-mail

The UAB and the Cerdanyola City Council have awarded the literary prizes they jointly organise each year. Miquel Ribas won the 30th "Valldaura - Memorial Pere Calders" Novel Prize for his work Ilha do Farol. Carla Clúa was awarded the 15th "Caterina Albert" Prize of Short Narrative for Young People for her story Pausa, sucre, Sevilla. And the 29th "Miquel Martí i Pol" Poetry Prize was awarded ex aequo to Josep Domènech for Eixint de fer and to Josep A. Aguilar for Ballar amb els espectres.

Lliurament dels premis literaris 2024

The ceremony took place in the UAB Auditorium at the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, and was attended by UAB Rector Javier Lafuente, and the Cerdanyola Mayor Carlos Cordón. The rector congratulated the award winners and expressed his "special thanks" for the work carried out by the jury. He emphasised on the fact that the novel prize has reached its 30th edition and said that these awards are "a consolidated and leading cultural event". In addition, Rector Lafuente said that "the cultural policy of the UAB cannot be limited to the borders of its campus" and affirmed that these awards represent "a good example of joint work between two institutions, the City Council and the University, with the shared objective of strengthening the cultural dimension of society".

Mayor Cordón joined in congratulating the award winners, while also highlighting the quality of the works presented, and thanked the collaboration of the UAB in this initiative, with particular emphasis put on the work done by the members of the juries. The mayor assured that "it is always a pleasure to attend this awards ceremony" and expressed his desire that the winning authors participate in the presentation of the award-winning volumes in November. MAyor Cordón said that the City Council will continue "committed to culture" and supporting activities such as this literary competition.

This year has broken the record of works submitted in the literary awards, 192 in total. Specifically, 25 have opted for the "Caterina Albert" Short Narrative Prize for Young People, 85 for the "Miquel Martí i Pol" Poetry Prize, and 82 for the "Valldaura-Memorial Pere Calders" Novel Prize.

The texts submitted in the three categories wer required to be original works, written in Catalan and unpublished. As for the "Miquel Martí i Pol" award, these are books of poetry (i.e., not individual poems); and, in the case of the "Caterina Albert" award for short stories, the authors must not be more than 27 years old at the end of the submission period. The prizes are worth 3,000 euros in the case of novels, 1,000 euros for poetry books and 500 euros for the short story prize. All the winning works will be published by the UAB Publications Service, which will present the volumes at an institutional event in November; the specific date is yet to be announced.

The event was organised by the UAB Publications Service and presented by the actor Carles Cruces. It included a performance by the UAB Chamber Choir, which dedicated a musical tribute to the work of Àngel Guimerà, and a poetry recital entitled Marçal sentida offered by students Sofia Oliva and Laia Solé. In the closing speech, Faculty of Arts & Humanities Dean Margarita Freixas mentioned that she was pleased to have hosted the awards ceremony for the first time and praised the work of the jury members in choosing texts that reflect "a good and beautiful language", paraphrasing Ramon Llull. Dean Freixas hoped that the distinctions awarded today would be "one more step in the beginning or in the consolidation of a literary voice".

The UAB, with Sustainable Development Goals

  • Quality education

Within