A "thorough" investigation, which dismantles stereotypes about the author and which adopts a "multidisciplinary perspective". It is the jury's definition of the work Hunger in the eyes, cement in the mouth. A reading of 'La mort i la primavera' by Mercè Rodoreda, from Neus Penalba (Tarragona, 1982), winner of the 52nd edition of the Joan Fuster d'Essaig prize, which holds a record for participation.
Chosen from among 35 originals presented, Penalba's work aims to go beyond the readings that have already been done on this posthumous text by Rodoreda, which, according to the author, "forces us to be ethnographers". Penalba, professor of Spanish and Catalan literature at the University of Cambridge, approached the work in 2011 and "takes apart a whole vision I had of Rodoreda", a work in which, she believes, the Catalan writer wanted to develop a " narrative primitivism, transferring artistic mechanisms that he had already experienced", he explained yesterday at a press conference.
Together with Penalba, the Octubres awarded the Andròmina Narrative prize to En t rànsit, by the historian Ferran Garcia-Oliver (Beniopa, 1957), and Tornaràs a mirar-me, by the poet and cultural manager Joan Duran i Ferrer (Sitges, 1978), who were already winners of the Octubre in previous editions: Garcia-Oliver won the Joan Fuster for Essay in 2015, and Joan Duran, the Vicent Andrés Estellés for Poetry in 2019. 121 originals were presented.
En trance is a "magnificent psychogeography" of the city of Valencia, "with a rhythm that draws and describes the recent history of the Valencian Country in an extraordinary way", according to the jury. A novel that depicts the time of transition, of which the author defends that "much has been talked about, but little has been written", and which, he explains, arises as "a tribute to my generation ” and, above all, to those who came from the Valencian regions to discover the Valencian capital as a place of sexual, but also linguistic, experimentation. In Tornaràs a mirar me el jure highlights the description of human cruelty "with extreme sensitivity and the subtle mastery of orality with expressive violence".
On the other hand, the Octobers awarded the Vicent Andrés Estellés Poetry Prize to La crossa de l'aorta, by the poet Irene Tarrés Canimas (Girona, 1979), chosen from a total of 127 originals. The members of the jury emphasized that the book is built as "a journey through the experience of motherhood". The poet explained how she wrote the book of poems from the birth of her son, for a while with him on top while breastfeeding, and quoted Estellés to remember that "he said that love is a cataclysm, and for me love is also this Who is teaching me to love is my son".
Finally, the jury of the Pere Capellà Theater Award recognized La nória, by the playwright Paula Llorens Camarena (Canals, 1986), after discarding 66 other originals. The jury pointed out that "his poetry is skilfully combined with an allegory against romantic love and patriarchal violence". A dramatic text about the sexual abuse suffered by a girl who was cured thanks to the help of the fiction of children's stories, in addition to being a reflection on "the society we are building and with which values we build it", pointed out the author . The awards were handed out last night in a ceremony in Valencia, attended by President Pere Aragonès.
