Luisgé Martín, Gonzalo Calcedo and Gonzalo Hidalgo are the Mario Vargas Llosa NH Short Story Award winners

• Participation sets a record once again this year: almost 2,000 independent Spanish-language stories were submitted

• The jury was composed this year of literary personalities of the stature of Ángeles Caso, José Manuel Blecua, Fernando Aramburu, Jordi Gracia and Jose Luis Martín

The Nobel Prize in Literature Mario Vargas Llosa and the President of NH Hoteles Mariano Pérez Claver, handed out the prizes of the Mario Vargas Llosa NH Short Story Award at a ceremony that took place at the Casino de Madrid. The lucky authors Luisgé Martín, Gonzalo Calcedo and Gonzalo Hidalgo were awarded in the various categories, while Lola Sanabria, Eloy Serrano and Agustín González were finalists.

According to Mariano Pérez Claver, Chairman of NH Hoteles: “the high quantity and quality of the short stories submitted by these great writers is yet another proof of the relevance and tradition of these awards, which demonstrate the Company’s unwavering support to culture”.

Categories and prize winners
The prize for the best original short story consisting of €10,000 went to Luisgé Martín for his story titled “Los dientes del azar”. Luisgé Martín freelances for El Viajero, Babelia and El País and has published two short story collections, “Los oscuros” and “El alma del Erizo” (Publisher: Alfaguara), five novels, “La dulce ira”, “La muerte de Tadzio”, “Los amores confiados”, “Las manos cortadas” (Alfaguara) and his most recent piece of work, “La mujer de sombra” (Anagrama). The winning story, “Los dientes del azar”, set in the Basque Country, in Spain, deals with the consequences of violence and reflects on chance and the decisions we humans take throughout our lives.

Lola Sanabria, Eloy Serrano and Agustín González-Cano were the finalists in this category for their respective short stories, “Frutos del mar”, “El reloj de pared” and “La noche de los Lotófagos”, winning €1,500 each.

The winners of the best short story published in 2010 and 2011 category were Gonzalo Calcedo for “El prisionero de la avenida Lexington” (Publisher: Menoscuarto) and Gonzalo Hidalgo for “Conversación” (Tusquets), with each author receiving €5,000.
Born in Palencia, Gonzalo Calcedo is currently one of the most important contemporary writers in Spanish in the short story literary genre. He has published 14 short story collections with a distintictive personal style underpinned by realism and a desire to mirror contemporary life. Calcedo won the first edition of the Mario Vargas Llosa NH Short Story Prize 16 years ago for his first unpublished short stories collection, “Otras geografías”. Since then he has gone on to publish 14 books, most recently “El prisionero de la avenida Lexington”, which has been recognized as the most prominent of those published in 2010. In this book, the characters face nostalgia, loss, the baggage of the past and the burden of the vulgarity of the present, all of them themes that are handled with a profoundness and literary touch that highlight the author’s mastery of the short story genre.

Meanwhile, Gonzalo Hidalgo, born in Cáceres and a graduate of Romance Philology and Image Science, he has worked as a professor of literature at a high school in Plasencia. Some of his most noteworthy publications include “Paradoja del interventor”, “Campo de amapolas” and “El espíritu áspero” (Publisher: Tusquets). His book “Conversación” has been recognized as the best book of short stories published in 2011. It consists of five short stories in which different narration techniques are employed, ranging from monologue to confessional autobiography, which shows the versality of an acclaimed writer.

A prestigious award …
The jury was composed this year by Ángeles Caso, Planeta prize in 2009 with the novel “Contra el viento” and Fernando Lara prize with “Un largo silencio”; José Manuel Blecua, Director of the Royal Spanish Academy and professor at Barcelona’s Autónoma University; Fernando Aramburu, author of seven novels and four short story collections, including “Los peces de la amargura”, Mario Vargas Llosa NH prize winner in 2007; Jordi Gracia, professor of literature at the Universidad de Barcelona and literature critic for “El País”; and José Luis Martín Nogales, director of UNED-Pamplona and author of the novels “Herederos del paraíso” and “La mujer de Roma”.

The Mario Vargas Llosa NH Short Story Award is currently the most important in this genre in Spain. Over 16,000 authors from 31 countries have submitted their works for consideration throughout the prize’s 14 editions. Previous Mario Vargas Llosa NH prize-winners have included Almudena Grandes, Gonzalo Calcedo and Jorge Aranguren in 1998; Luis Mateo Díez, Javier Maqua, Adolfo García Ortega and Enrique Lázaro in 1999; Ignacio Martínez de Pisón, Ignacio Vidal-Folch and Juan Antonio Bueno in 2000; José Carlos Llop, Juan Bonilla, Ignacio García-Valiño and Gonzalo Calcedo in 2001; Soledad Puértolas, Espido Freire, Carlos del Olmo and Sergi Pàmies in 2002; Cristina Fernández Cubas, Pedro Ugarte and Aurelio Loureiro in 2003; José María Merino, Andrés Ibáñez and Cristina Cerrada in 2004; Juan Eduardo Zúñiga, Emilio Gavilanes, Ignacio Padilla and Gloria Montero in 2005; Mercedes Abad, César Gavela and Ignacio Ferrando in 2006; Fernando Aramburu, Rubén Abella and Marta Sanz in 2007; Manuel Longares, Aurelio Loureiro, Felipe Benítez Reyes and Lourdes Aso in 2008; and Carlos Castán, Juan Bonilla, Cristina Peri Rossi and Gustavo Martín Garzo in the 2009 and 2010 editions.

... that is not afraid to innovate
In addition, literature lovers and social network fans from all around the world were given the chance to participate in the Ist NH Hoteles flash fiction Contest using NH Hoteles’ official Facebook profiles by sending in a micro-story of no more than 200 words, the only constraint being that the protagonist had to be a character from any Mario Vargas Llosa novel. The flash fiction prize-winner was Gustavo Aréstegui from Peru, who was invited by NH Hoteles to the the Mario Vargas Llosa NH Short Story Award ceremony, luncheon and colloquium along with the Nobel Laureate himself and the winners and finalists of this prestigious prize.

In an unbeatable setting in Spain’s capital
The award ceremony took place today following a lunch and colloquium attended by the acclaimed Nobel Laureate and a myriad of prominent names from the world of literature, culture and communication. The Casino de Madrid, managed by NH Hoteles, once again proved the ideal host for the event. The lunch was prepared by famous chef Paco Roncero, who boasts two Michelin guide stars.

About NH Hoteles
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NH Hoteles is traded on the Madrid stock exchange.

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