The Espai Endesa de Barcelona once again hosted this Wednesday the awarding of the Crítica Serra d’Or awards, given by the Montserrat Abbey magazine, in its 58th edition, consisting of a golden saw of lapel, without financial endowment.
In the literature section, the jury, made up of Júlia Ojeda, Vinyet Panyella, Marina Porras, Xulio Ricardo Trigo and Marika Vila awarded the novel Triomfador (Males Herbes), by Joan Jordi Miralles; the poetry collection La llum mirada (Perifèric), by Vicenç Llorca and the essay La cinta romella (Ensiola) by Fèlix Fanés, while the comics award was won by Jordi Carrión (screenplay) and Sagar (drawing) for El museu ( Norma Editorial), and Lola Badia has been awarded the translation prize for La mort del rei Artús (Cal Carré).
With regard to children’s and youth literature, the jury made up of Mònica Baró, Núria Càrcamo, Núria Ventura and Marika Vila has decided to award children’s La letra que tot ho changea (Meraki), by Ramon Besora (text) and Albert Asensio ( illustration), in youth Els contes de Lesbos (Bamboo), by Àngel Burgas (and illustration by Ignasi Blanch), the knowledge prize went to A city on Mars (Youth), with text by Sheddad Kaid -Salah Ferrón, Guillem Anglada-Escudé and Miquel Sureda Anfres and illustration by Eduard Altarriba, while the youth comic was won by Pep Brocal for the adaptation of Ramon Llull’s Llibre de les besties (Bang).
In research, the jury (Montserrat Bacardí, Jordi Casassas, Joandomènec Ros, Margalida Tomàs and Francesc Vilanova) have awarded Joaquim Albareda Salvadó in the humanities for Vançuda but not submissive: Catalonia of the 18th century (Editions 62), in the sciences the book Grans mammillos of Catalonia and Andorra. Distribution, biology, ecology and conservation (Lynx), by Jordi Ruiz Olmo and David Camps, and the one for Catalan studies was Catalonia: A new history (Routledge), by Andrew Dowling.
The theater career prize went to Nao Albet and Marcel Borràs, the dance prize to Celebration. A spoken dance, by Montse Colomé and Pujol; the one for theater was won by Joan Yago’s Tot el que passara afrir, directed by Glòria Balañà, and the prize for the best theoretical contribution was awarded to the 1st International Symposium “Catalan Playwrights of the 21st Century: creation , translation and criticism”, organized by Gemma Pellissa and Adriana Nicolau, according to the jury made up of Agnès Blot, Enric Ciurans, Eva Saumell, Andreu Gomila and Bárbara Raubert.
Among the cultural representation that attended the event, presented by the journalist Eva Comas-Arnal – who wanted to have a thought for the cultural journalist Anna Pérez Pagès–, there was the president of the Parliament of Catalonia, Anna Erra; the Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga; Father Abbot Manel Gasch; the director of Montserrat Abbey Publications, Núria Mañé, the head of the National Book and Reading Plan, Montse Ayats, as well as numerous publishers.
The head of Serra d’Or’s editorial board, Joaquim Noguero, defended the magazine’s link to “elite culture”, as “a space of plurality, of coexistence of contrary and even incompatible ideas, invited to speak, to debate, to discuss only in the most humanistic sense of the term”, and that “both the magazine and the awards seek to make a map” because they create “elite culture”, which “has nothing to do with the ‘elitism and appeals to an adult look’ and ‘it is a tool for hierarchisation, for gaining authority, for credibility, for the legitimacy of a point of view, against the authoritarianism of the why so hard of the facts’. Noguero, who took on the task last July, also assured that “the choice of topics this past year was a statement of principles”.
