Samanta Schweblin wins the 1st Aena Narrative Award with ‘El Buen Mal’

The Argentine writer Samanta Schweblin has won by majority the 1st Aena Prize for Hispanic American Fiction, worth one million euros, with the book of short stories ‘El Buen Mal’ (Seix Barral), announced the president of the jury, Rosa Montero, at an event held this Wednesday night at the Maritime Museum of Barcelona.

The finalists for the award, who will receive 30,000 euros, were Héctor Abad Faciolince with ‘Now and in the hour’ (Alfaguara), Nona Fernández for ‘Marciano’ (Random House), Marcos Giralt Torrente with ‘Los ilusionistas’ (Anagrama) and Enrique Vila-Matas with ‘Canon de camara obscura’ (Seix Barral).

The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, attended the ceremony to award the 1st Aena Prize for narrative; the mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni; the Minister of Industry, Jordi Hereu; the Minister of Culture, Sònia Hernández, and the president and CEO of Aena, Maurici Lucena.

At the beginning of the event, Lucena defended Aena’s decision with this “strong patronage initiative” as part of the corporate social responsibility of companies, especially large ones, with which it wants to return to society a portion of how much it owes.

He has defended Aena’s historical commitment to culture, has announced that the company will acquire a “significant amount” of books, both the winning work and the finalists, and has highlighted that other awards such as the Nobel, the Booker or the Strega have come from companies that had nothing to do with culture.

Lucena has expressed “the wish” that each year the presentation of this award can be held in Barcelona, ​​as a tribute to reading, the publication of good books and writers.

(THERE WILL BE AN EXPANSION)