The writer from Bilbao has won the majority with the Eurostars Hotels Travel Fiction Award thanks to her work Guide to Places That No Longer Exist, a recognition that comes with a prize of 25.000 euros and places her back at the center of literary news.
The award was presented on the terrace of the Eurostars Grand Marina (5 stars) In Barcelona, ​​at an event attended by figures from the cultural, artistic, political and business worlds; the evening featured Mà rius Carol as master of ceremonies and with the express support of RBA Books and the University of Barcelona.
A majority decision and a gala that vindicates travel narrative
During the ceremony, Amancio López Seijas, president of the Hotusa Group, stressed that the award has grown to become a reference in travel literature, a milestone that encourages the organization to continue building bridges between literary creation and society.
The head of the hotel group thanked the guests for their attendance and highlighted the collaboration of the entities that make the event possible, with special mention to RBA and the University of Barcelona, ​​whose support has been key to consolidate the twentieth edition.
A cartography of memory: this is how the winning work breathes
Guide to Places That No Longer Exist proposes a journey through territories displaced by time: cities submerged by floodsChildren's meadows devoured by cement, souks devastated by war, and stations that function as mirrors of memories. The author transforms each vestige into a story.
The itinerary progresses from Bilbao to Damascus, crosses the English moors and reaches Finisterre, boards the Orient Express and reaches Ghana; the external geography dialogues with an emotional geography elaborated with melancholy, nostalgia and homesickness in the key of autofiction.
Freire explained that his vocation for travel and words have been going hand in hand since very early on, and that the impulse to rescue these fading scenes is born from an early realization: beloved places also disappear with the passing years.
Own voice versus AI: style as a trench
In her speech, the author warned of a tendency to favor entertainment over style workHe argued that preserving a singular voice is the best way to keep literature alive in the face of artificial intelligence.
From his experience directing master's degrees in creative writing, he perceives that many young authors write looking first at the immediate desire of the reader; for Freire, the commitment must be to a unique and recognizable world, capable of overcome the logic of homogenization that technologies impose.
Initiatory journeys and reality checks
His traveling biography began in his adolescence, when he arrived at Barcelona at 14 years old heading to Rome to sing a Creole mass; from then on, he confesses, he knew that his destiny would be linked to travel and writing.
Among the episodes that marked his outlook appears the August 1983 flood in Llodio, which devastated the area where she lived and left scars on many children, including her; that experience further cemented the need to preserve lost places.
The author also reflects on the contemporary traveler and the depersonalization of some destinations through standardization processes, a loss of the old that does not always bring something better in return.
Career, readings and recognitions
With a broad and diverse career, Espido Freire is one of the most influential voices of Spanish narrative: she won the Planeta Prize at the age of 25 thanks to Melocotones helados, after her debut with Irlanda, and has published nine novels, short story books, essays, as well as works for young people and children.
Has received distinctions such as the AzorÃn, the Ateneo de Sevilla and the Llanes Travel Book Prize. He combines writing with university teaching, his work as a lecturer, and contributions to media outlets such as RNE, 20minutos, Antena 3, and El PaÃs Viajes; his work has been translated into numerous languages.
Among his reading affinities, he highlights a weakness for 19th-century travel literature (English and German traditions), names like Mary Shelley, Oscar Wilde or Emilia Pardo Bazán, and closer references like Javier Reverte; also weighing in on her journeys in the footsteps of Jane Austen and the Brontës, and readings such as Birds That Stay, by Eduardo Jordá.
The competition, in figures, and the editorial roadmap
Organized by Eurostars Hotel Company With the collaboration of RBA and the University of Barcelona, ​​the competition received 254 original entries, the edition with the highest participation to date and a 70% increase over the previous year.
By origin, a 55 % of manuscripts arrived from Spain, a 40 % from Latin America and a 5% from other countries (Europe, Tunisia, Australia or Israel), which confirms the international projection of the award.
The winning work will have double edition: one for the hotel chain's clients and another for bookstores, run by RBA, thus guaranteeing its presence in both the tourist and commercial circuits.
With this victory, the Bilbao author reinforces a career marked by the exploration of travel and memory, while the Eurostars Hotels Award confirms her role as reference platform for travel narratives and as a meeting point between writers and readers.
