The Pedro Soler Short Story Contest awards its top prize to writer Hugo Folk
One more year, and to four, the José Vargas Gómez Library in Abarán hosted the award ceremony of the Pedro Soler Journalist Short Story Contest, organized by the City Council of Abarán, the Cajamurcia Foundation and LA VERDAD. The event, presented by the official chronicler and member of the competition jury, José Carrasco, was presided over by the mayor of Abarán, Jesús Gómez, and by the manager of the Cajamurcia Foundation, Pascual Martínez. The author of the poster, Antonio Tapia, was also present; the Councilor of Culture, Felipe García, and family and friends of Pedro Soler, Murcia’s official chronicler, Fine Arts academic, art critic and editor of LA VERDAD for four decades, who died in November 2018.
After the decision of the jury was read by Carrasco, it was the mayor Felipe García who awarded a second prize of 100 euros to the writer Emilia García Castro, who came from Asturias with her husband, for her story ‘El alma del valle’ , for which he read, applauded.
And then the mayor of Abarán, Jesús Gómez Montiel, presided over the presentation of the prize of 800 euros to the winner of the Pedro Soler Journalist Short Story Contest, Juan Carlos Chicote [finalista del Premio Fundación Gabriel García Márquez 2021], who signs by his literary name, Hugo Folk, for his work presented under the title ‘Galápagos’, which he also read and received applause from the audience. The second winner, Vicente Pérez Masedo, was unable to attend the ceremony.
Hugo Folk, who defined himself as “a very critical person”, denounced “that people don’t read or buy books”. But he thanked LA VERDAD “because it is the only newspaper in Spain that publishes the winning stories, and the treatment in Abarán was great,” he acknowledged. “Everyone has their aspirations and dreams, some of which may have been fulfilled in another life or, simply, they are dreams. I’m interested in identity issues and the ‘metaphysics of animals’, a theme that reoccurs in this story, in which I also wanted to delve into human concerns: when we know what we are and where we’re going and when we’re happy with our lives », he stated when he heard the verdict.
‘Galápagos’, published yesterday in LA VERDAD, tells the story of a turtle who fantasizes in another life about his time as a correspondent for the ‘London Post’, traveling the world and discovering secrets of the British royal family.
A story that, according to the jury, “transcends the purely anecdotal to delve into the realities of life, human struggle and survival.”
The manager of the Cajamurcia Foundation, Pascual Martínez, felt “among friends and in my city, and the words of José Carrasco, who was my teacher, have put the context of this award very well.” Regarding Pedro Soler, he stated that “he was an exceptional person who carried his people in his heart”. And he had a memory of García Martínez, jury member at the first three editions. «I still remember ‘La Zarabanda’ that he did Pedro Soler the day after his death, a portrait of this abaranero».
The mayor congratulated the winners and the author of the poster, thanked the jury (José Carrasco, and the journalists José Carreres, Manuel Madrid, María Soler and Encarna Soler, with Mari Carmen Gómez as secretary), and reiterated its commitment to the fifth edition in 2023.
Source: La Verdad
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