Jordi Sierra i Fabra, wins ‘City of Torrevieja Novel Prize’

THE novel ‘Shadows in the time,’ by Jordi Sierra i Fabra is the winner of the coveted X City of Torrevieja Novel Prize.

The competition is run in collaboration with one of Spain’s most important publishing houses, Plaza & Janes. Mayor.

Torrevieja Mayor Eduardo Dolon, helped present the prizes and also took the opportunity to announce that the Novel Award itself would be deferred until the economy permits them to reintroduce it, in a time of an improved economic climate.

The annual event has a prize fund of €360,607, making it the second most important in the Spanish speaking world and is a benchmark event in the national and Latin American publishing scene.

In the nine previous editions, the Prize winners were: Javier Reverte, JJ Armas Marcelo Javier Valdes Zoé Sierra as a finalist, Cesar Vidal and Jose Calvo Poyato as finalist, Jorge Bucay and Ignacio García-Valine as a finalist; José Carlos Somoza and a finalist Juan Cobos Wilkins, John Gomez and Alejandro Palomas jury as a finalist, Alex Rovira Andres Pascual Francesc Miralles and as a finalist, and Gustavo Martín Garzo in the latest edition.

All have enjoyed the support and unanimous public and critical acclaim with novels being distributed with great success in Spain and Latin America.

Over the past eight years the award winning entries have sold over a million copies and rights have been sold to more than 30 different countries.

It has been announced that negotiations are underway between the council and the publishers to defer the prize for the meantime, amid criticism that the award does little for the promotion and marketing of the city, that the money could be put to better use locally and as such, this year the traditional banquet was given a miss, a saving of over €20,000 in this time of belt tightening.

The award will resume once the City’s financial status has returned to buoyancy.

One of the most outspoken opponents of the prize is former Torrevieja Deputy Mayor

Domingo Solar who at an EGM on August 17 called for the suspension Novel Prize City of Torrevieja while “the reality of our municipality is that there are torrevejenses beset by economic crisis can not afford to cover their basic needs or those of their families!” Soler also included the suspension of the prize in his Alternative Popular Party Manifesto. T

he was happy to see the award suspended but still scathing of the PP for not taking the opportunity to do so back in August, 2011.

Meanwhile, this year’s winner, Jordi Sierra i Fabra, is a well known and wealthy author who has said that all of the prize money will be donated towards teaching literacy in South America and so Torrevieja’s name will be spread even further around the world.

By Keith Nicol