Joan Francesc Fondevila Gascón, from Terrassa, triumphs in the Villa de El Escorial (Madrid) Narrative Award
Joan Francesc Fondevila Gascón, from Terrassa, has won the 34th Villa de El Escorial “María Fuentetaja” Narrative Award in El Escorial (Madrid) with his story “El agua de la gaviota”. “I am thrilled with this victory, which is especially moving as it is a prose poem that narrates the strength of an immigrant woman on a perilous sea voyage, during which she receives crucial help from a seagull.”
More than 600 entries were submitted to the competition, organized by the El Escorial City Council through its Equality Department. City council representatives are committed to implementing proactive policies aimed at eliminating the barriers that prevent true and effective equality between men and women from becoming a reality in society. This equality must be reflected in all facets of life, including artistic, literary, and cultural expression and production. The competition is framed within this mission, aiming to strengthen the balanced presence of women in all spaces of creation and participation, thereby fostering and enriching more pluralistic perspectives on reality. The prize includes a cash award of 500 euros.
Professor and Doctor Fondevila, who has also won numerous scientific, academic, management, and journalistic awards, adds another accolade to his distinguished literary career. Thus, in recent months, Fondevila has won the 1st International Erotic and Romantic Literature Award (with the novel “Milagro en el agua”, inspired by the 1962 flood in Terrassa and the surrounding area), the 1st Microfiction and Micropoem Award “Romería de la Virgen de las Viñas” in Tomelloso (Ciudad Real), the “José Nicolás Pascual Herrero” International Literary Award in Magaña (Soria), the Sant Jordi Blanquerna-Ramon Llull University Prize, the Sant Jordi EAE Business School-Grup Planeta Literary Prize and the International Award “Margarita Dominici” (Uruguay). “Writing is one of the most beautiful ways to convey feelings and to reach the reader’s heart,” Fondevila explains. “As a university professor, cultivating scientific and literary creation is a challenge that motivates the most,” says the president of the Societat Catalana de Comunicació-Institut d’Estudis Catalans (SCC-IEC) and director of the Center for Cable Studies (CECABLE).
