Last Friday, 1 December 2023, the juries of the XLI “Ciutat de València” Literary Awards, corresponding to 2023, met to decide which works would be the winners from among the 1646 submitted for the eight prizes of the contest.
Thus, of the Valencian language categories, the Isabel de Villena Prize for narrative was awarded to Jovi Lozano-Seser for his collection of short stories Assegut a la dreta del pare; the Josep Vicent Marqués Prize for essays went to Juli Capilla for his work La terra i la paraula; The Eduard Escalante Theatre Prize went to the Catalan actor and playwright Manel Dueso for his play L’encant de les nenes; and the Maria Beneyto Poetry Prize went to José Ángel García Caballero for Canvi de mans.
As for the categories in Spanish, the Vicente Blasco Ibáñez Prize for narrative went to Carmen Ródenas Calatayud for her novel El talento; the Celia Amorós Prize for essays went to Francisco Carreño Espinosa from Madrid for Los impostores; the Max Aub Prize for theatre went to the Basque playwright and director Javier Liñera for his play Lo peor que le puede pasar a un niño; and the Juan Gil-Albert Prize for poetry went to the Madrid writer Carmen Palomo Pinel for her book Ser mirada.
This year there has been an increase in the number of original works submitted to the competition, particularly in the Valencian language. The most popular categories continue to be poetry in Spanish, with 647 originals received, and narrative in the same language, with 571.