Repsol Fundation has announced the 20th edition of the Repsol Short Narrative Award, in collaboration with the Consejería de Cultura, Lengua y Juventud of the Xunta de Galicia. The award aims to promote and strengthen literary creation in the Galician language.

The Secretary General for Language, Valentín García Gómez, and the Head of Institutional Relations at Repsol Fundation, Mercedes Gómez Badiola, announced the new call this morning. Both institutions have jointly promoted the award since 2006, and this year its prize money has been increased to commemorate its anniversary. They were joined at the event by the Managing Director of Editorial Galaxia, Marcos Calveiro.

The award, one of the benchmarks of Galician literature, grants €15,000 to the winning author and includes the publication of their short novel by Editorial Galaxia.

Since its creation, the Repsol Short Narrative Award has sought to provide a platform for Galician writers to reach audiences through this literary competition. In addition, with the support of the Xunta de Galicia, it aims to promote the social use of the Galician language, one of the key priorities of the Consejería de Cultura, Lengua y Juventud.

Participation requirements

Submissions may be sent until 31 July. Texts must be original, written in Galician in accordance with the regulations established by the Real Academia Gallega, and must be between 120,000 and 270,000 characters (including spaces).

Once the deadline has passed, the jury will select the winning work, which will be announced at the end of September. The jury is composed of five distinguished professionals from the Galician literary field, representing Repsol, the Secretaría General de la Lengua de la Xunta de Galicia, the Real Academia Gallega, the Asociación de Escritoras y Escritores en Lengua Gallega and Editorial Galaxia.

The rules for this latest edition are available at acoruna.repsol.es/gl.

The Repsol Short Narrative Award

As noted above, the Repsol Short Narrative Award is one of the leading prizes in Galician literature, as reflected in its participation figures. Since its creation, nearly 600 original works by Galician writers have been submitted, and nineteen works have been published.

The award was created in 2006 by Repsol’s A Coruña Industrial Complex, jointly structured with the Secretariat General for Language of the Xunta de Galicia, with the aim of promoting Galician culture and language. In 2010, Repsol Fundation took over as the driving force behind the competition, which has always received support from the Royal Galician Academy and the Association of Writers in the Galician Language (AELG), as well as close collaboration with Editorial Galaxia, publisher of previous winning works.

In its first edition in 2006, journalist Miguel Sande won the award for Si algún día esta mujer está muerta, while Xavier Lama, professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela and journalist, received a runner-up prize for El insomnio de los centauros.

The second edition was won by Así nacen las ballenas by Ánxeles Sumai, and the third by writer, playwright and cartoonist Xosé Luís Martínez Pereiro with La verdad como mal menor.

In 2010, the prize went to Xurxo Sierra for Los Fios, and in 2011 to Microbios y otros paquidermos by Fernando Díaz-Castroverde

In 2012, the award went to La forma de las nubes by María López Sande; while in 2013 the winning short novel was El último libro de Emma Olsen by Berta Dávila.

In 2014, Santiago Lopo won the prize thanks to his work La diagonal de los Locos, and in 2015 the awarded novel was Fontán by Marcos Calveiro, from Vigo. Daniel Asorey became the winner of the 2016 edition with Nordeste.

The journalist, writer, and professor Xosé A. Neira Cruz received the award for El sonido de las sirenas in 2017, and the writer from Monforte, Antón Lopo, won in 2018 for his work Extraordinario.

In the 2019 and 2020 editions, two new Galician writers were awarded: Gonzalo Hermo for his work Diario de un entierro, and Berta Dávila, who became a two-time winner of this award with her short novel Isla Decepción.

In 2021, the novel Eternity by the writer Xosé Monteagudo was selected to win the prize, and in 2022 the winner was Alberto Ramos for his novel Los cuerpos dos Romanov. In 2023, the award winner was Fran Fernández Dávila for his work Groenlandia, and in the penultimate edition, Ramos became a two-time winner with his novel Pirotecnia.

The list of winning works is completed by Illa de sangue, by the writer Carmen V. Valiña, which was recognized in the most recent edition of the award.

More information: acoruna.repsol.es/gl and www.fundacionrepsol.com