The Repsol Foundation launches the 19th edition of the Repsol Short Story Award in collaboration with the Xunta de Galicia

The Repsol Foundation launches the 19th edition of the Repsol Short Story Award in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Language, and Youth of the Xunta de Galicia, which seeks to promote and strengthen the creation of literature in the Galician language.

The Secretary-General of Language, Valentín García Gómez, and the director of the Repsol Industrial Complex in A Coruña, Natalia Barreiro, announced this morning a new call for the Award that both entities have been promoting since 2006. During the meeting, they were accompanied by the director of Ediciones of Editorial Galaxia, Marcos Calveiro, the president of the Galician Language Writers Association (AELG), Cesáreo Sánchez, and the archivist and member of the Executive Commission of the Royal Galician Academy, Dolores Sánchez Palomino. 

The award, which has become a benchmark in Galician literature, aims to promote Galician writers and reach readers through the literary contest. This way, the Xunta de Galicia promotes, with the support of the Repsol Foundation, the social use of the Galician language, one of the priority areas for the Ministry led by López Campos. 

The prize money amounts to 12,000 euros and includes the publication of the short story by Editorial Galaxia. 

Submissions can be made until July 31st. The texts must be original and written in Galician, in accordance with the regulations established by the Royal Galician Academy, and must be at least 120,000 characters with spaces included and no more than 270,000 characters with spaces included. 

Once the deadline has passed, a jury will decide the winning entry, which will be announced in September. It will be made up of five members, representing the Repsol Foundation, the General Secretariat of Language of the Xunta de Galicia, the Royal Galician Academy, the Galician Language Writers Association, and the Editorial Galaxia. 

The bases of this last call are available on the website acoruna.repsol.es. 

The Repsol Short Story Award: nearly twenty years creating Galician literature 

The Short Story Award was created in 2006 by the Repsol Industrial Complex in A Coruña and organized jointly with the General Secretariat of Language of the Xunta de Galicia, with the aim of promoting Galician culture and language. In 2010, the Repsol Foundation took over the promotion of the contest, which, since its inception, has had the support of the Royal Galician Academy and the Galician Language Writers Association (AELG), as well as the close collaboration with Editorial Galaxia, which published the previous winning works. 

In the first edition, in 2006, the journalist, Miguel Sande, won this award for his work Si algún día esta mujer muerta and Xavier Lama, a USC professor and journalist, won an award for El insomnio de los centauros.  

The winner of the second edition was the work Así nacen las ballenas by the writer, Ánxeles Sumai, and in the third the narrator, playwright, and cartoonist, Xosé Luís Martínez Pereiro, won the award for La verdad como mal menor.  

In the 2010 edition, the award went to the writer, Xurxo Sierra, for his work Los Fios. Microbios y otros pachidermos by Fernando Díaz-Castroverde won the 2011 edition.  

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

In 2014, Santiago Lopo won the award thanks to his work La diagonal de los Locos and in 2015 the winning short story was Fontán del vigués by Marcos Calveiro. Daniel Asorey was the winner of the 2016 edition with his novel Nordeste.  

The journalist, writer, and professor, Xosé A. Neira Cruz, won the award for El sonido de las sirenas in 2017, and 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 became the winner of this award for the second time with her short story, Isla Decepción. 

In 2021, the novel Eternity by writer Xosé Monteagudo was the work chosen to win the award, and in 2022 the winner was Alberto Ramos, for his novel Los cuerpos dos Romanov. In 2023, the winner of the award was Fran Fernández Davila for his work Groenlandia and in the last edition, Ramos became the winner for the second time with his novel Pirotecnia.  

Since its inception in 2006, the contest has had the participation of nearly 600 original pieces by Galician writers. 

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