On Friday, the Alava District Council in the Basque Country of Spain announced the election results 54th Ignacio Aldecoa International Short Story PrizeWhich was won by the Argentine writer Fernando Garriga (Buenos Aires, 1964) for his book of short stories, tentatively titled “A Loop in Time.” The writer used as a pseudonym the word: Omen Audius. 352 works competed.
Garriga will receive twelve thousand euros, and his book of six long stories, which will be published by the Spanish publishing house Fulgencio Pimentel, will be presented in March 2026. In Alava, Barcelona and Madrid. The samples are also expected to arrive in Argentina.
The competition’s jury – composed of Spain-based Argentine writer Clara Obligado and Spanish writers Antonio Altarriba, Sabina Urraca, Juan Aparicio Belmonte, editor Cesar Sánchez Rodríguez, and Enrique Uriarte Gonzalo Bilbao, from the House of Culture of Alava – highlighted the award-winning work.”He presents extraordinary imaginative power, utilizing extraordinary formal ability with absolute control of rhythm, and deploying a rich and complex imagination.. Rarely do we read works that depart from reality with so much salinity (so much grace).”
“He deals with metaphysical issues without fear of humor, and even without fear of ridicule. We admire the lightness of that leap,” highlights the referee; In conclusion, he asserts that Garriga’s work “offers the literary possibility of truly traveling elsewhere.”
The jury of Ignacio Aldecoa (a famous Spanish writer, especially for his short novels) chose the finalists based on the story; If this was acceptable, they continued to evaluate the entire group. In Garriga’s case, the story that passed the jury’s first nomination was a “time loop”, set on an island, the coast of Martinez and Plaza Italia.
In addition to being a writer, Garriga is a musician and landscape painter. He published books School for the blind (2013), Birthday on the island (2016), Business continuity (2016), Runkle’s conquests according to my mother (2019) and Almost a Japanese novel (2023). For his story book Business continuityHe received the third prize in the Luis de Tejeda competition from the Municipality of Córdoba and the first municipal prize for the biennium 2016-2017 from the City of Buenos Aires.
The Álava Provincial Council also announced that Nahia Intexaoste, in Basque, and Grethel Delgado, in Spanish, as winners of the 35th Ernestina de Chambourcin Poetry Competition, and that Rubén Sánchez Pacaïcoa received the Ignacio Aldecua Pica Scholarship for Literary Creativity in Basque.
Thus begins the “time loop”.
The canoe moved down the river, long preceded by the sound of the engine. The islander was at the back, motionless. The dogs barked as they passed from pier to pier. They stopped at the storehouse, and talked to the owner: about the flood, when the water, which had already begun to pass over the banks, would stop rising. He asked for a can of fuel, so he had to travel upriver to look for a load of firewood. Therefore, you need to borrow a barge.
The other remained in a state of rumination. It was not polite to ask him what kind of cargo he had to carry with the tide, but it was his vehicle.
The islander was not going around telling him that he had discovered a store of timber in the mountains. Someone cut down trees and made planks, which were left to dry near the mental asylum. One day, with the gun on his shoulder, looking for something to eat, he stumbled upon a cache. He was a cautious man. He devoted himself to observation. He walked long distances through the mountains, in circles, looking for footprints in case someone was there. Spinel was created to justify its existence. The wood was enough for a large piece, and because of the way the river grew, it was possible to navigate through the trees. There must have been a meter of water, more or less.
The butler wanted to ask, because if the barge he owned was involved in something illegal, he would get into trouble and wouldn’t want to repeat the crime. The other may feel insulted; It is a bad companion to accuse someone of something that cannot be known. He himself had thought, that morning, that the tide was right for people to go out into some field to raid someone else’s property. This wouldn’t be the first time.
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