The Finest Narrative Awards They have consolidated their position in the European literary scene by distinguishing, in their sixth edition, two authors who clearly opt for imagination: the Catalan Irene Pujadas and the Argentinian woman living in Catalonia Silvana VogtBoth have been recognized with the Catalan and Spanish narrative awards, respectively, in a call that also reinforces the presence of comics and new voices.
La Finestres FoundationThe organization behind these awards maintains its objective of supporting the best contemporary fiction and giving visibility to works that often go unnoticed in the publishing market. At a gala held at the Conservatori del Liceu in Barcelona, the winners were announced, combining... creative risk, boundless imagination, and a critical eyewith special attention to narratives that break away from the more realistic and autobiographical mold.
Irene Pujadas: an inner adventure with humor and radical fiction
In the Catalan-language narrative category, the prize has been awarded to Irene Pujadas (Sant Just Desvern, 1990) for his first novel, The intruderPublished by L'Altra Editorial. The jury highlighted “the intelligence of a writing style that fully engages with imaginative fiction” and its ability to captivate the reader from the first page to the last, relying on sharp humor and a very personal perspective on the body and identity.
The novel is presented as a journey into the interior of one's own bodyA kind of fantastical adventure that parodies the discourse of self-knowledge and self-help. Through this exploration, Pujadas blends references to travel novels and the adventure tradition with absurd elements and subtle irony, constructing a contemporary fable that questions the current obsession with looking inward in search of simple answers.
The Catalan jury, made up of Anna Ballbona, Raül Garrigasait, Manel Ollé, Eva Vàzquez and chaired by Marina Espasa, he emphasized that in The intruder "Moral fable, poetic candor, and a very subtle irony" coexist, always revealing more than meets the eye. This combination of apparent lightness and underlying density has been one of the key reasons for placing the work at the top of the awards.
The author, who had already received critical acclaim—her book was chosen as best Catalan title of 2025 through various specialized media outlets—, he took advantage of the event to assert the importance of fiction In times of literary hyperrealism and autobiographical exhibitionism, Pujadas described the writing process as "something amorphous and incomplete," a kind of solitary tunnel full of crossed-out words, and did not hide his joy that this creative effort was being rewarded with an award of this magnitude.
Beyond the symbolic recognition, the award comes with a financial endowment of 25.000 eurosA sum that provides a welcome boost to his literary career. Pujadas explained matter-of-factly that the money will primarily allow him to buy time to continue writing and, incidentally, to buy himself a good ergonomic chair that will prevent him from breaking his back in the attempt.
Silvana Vogt: monsters, cataclysms and a childhood amidst overflowing waters
In the Spanish-language narrative category, the jury has awarded the prize to the Argentinian writer Silvana Vogt (Morteros, 1969) for his novel The fine art of creating monstersPublished by H&O. The work is set in a floating village in the Argentine Pampas —Morteros, the author's birthplace— which floods with astonishing ease and without clear explanations, and in which cars, dogs, cows and even coffins emerge from the waters, creating a landscape as realistic as it is disturbing.
The jury for narrative in Spanish, made up of Andrés Barba, Giuseppe Caputo, Laura Fernández, María Negroni and chaired by Camila Enrich, she emphasized recreation of a unique universe And difficult to forget. The image of that flooded town becomes a metaphor for the happy destabilization that the reader experiences upon entering the internal logic of the novel, guided by a narrator with an innocent appearance but an implacable gaze.
Vogt has described his book as an attempt to understand the moment when a more or less normal head transforms into creative muscle, almost like a living “typewriter”. Broadly speaking, she has summarized the work as “the story of a girl who tries to survive all the catastrophes that follow one after another in a town in the humid Pampas addicted to cataclysms”, combining memory, overflowing imagination and a very particular sensitivity towards everyday disaster.
Installed for years in Sant Just Desvern, where she works as a bookseller at Cal Llibreter, the author had already published in Catalan —with the novel The mechanics of water, in Edicions de 1984—before returning to her native language for this project. During the ceremony, she recalled the weight of her personal exile and explained that, after decades away from Argentina, this book is also a way of to reconcile with their country and their language.
Like the prize in Catalan, the award for narrative in Spanish is endowed with 25.000 Euros, an amount that Vogt has taken with irony and pragmatism: his intention is to “buy time to write”, a clear way of expressing what is really lacking for those who try to make a living from literature in the current context.
An award that champions imaginative fiction and a diversity of voices
The sixth edition of the Finestres Narrative Awards confirms the will of the Finestres Foundation The aim is to "reward the very best and that which unfairly goes unnoticed," as its organizers emphasize. This approach explains the selection of two novels that eschew straightforward realism and delve deeply into fantastic, metaphorical and experimental territoriesBut always with our feet firmly planted in human experience.
In the case of The intruderThe bet involves a parody of the cult of self-knowledge, transformed into an adventure within the body and accompanied by a classic adventure tone. In The fine art of creating monstersThe operation consists of looking at reality with the eyes of a child until normality becomes strange and appears a succession of almost apocalyptic images, amidst floods and figures emerging from the water as if they were embodied memories.
Both books engage with the present through imagination: in the face of the wave of autofiction and narratives excessively attached to biography, Pujadas and Vogt champion the power of inventionThe first does so through an absurd and lucid fable about the body and identity; the second, with a rural landscape overflowing with water that, while remaining local, has universal resonances about fear, memory and the formation of a writer.
The prize is not understood merely as an isolated recognition of two specific works, but as part of a literary ecosystem that Finestres is building in Barcelona and in the EmpordàThe foundation already has two bookstores on Diputació street in the Catalan capital, is preparing to open a third on the same street and a space specifically dedicated to Palestine in the Gràcia neighborhood, in addition to another bookstore and a literary residency in the Empordà, forming a stable network of support for reading and creation.
In this context, the €25.000 prize money for each award—a high figure compared to most prizes for published work, although modest compared to recent initiatives like the €1 million Aena prize—acts as a real boost for those trying to dedicate themselves to writingBoth Pujadas and Vogt have emphasized that, beyond the prestige, the prize represents a margin of tranquility and creative time, a scarce commodity in the publishing sector.
A literary gala at the Conservatori del Liceu with a social focus
The awards ceremony was held at the Liceu Conservatory of Barcelona, in an evening hosted by journalist and cultural communicator Laura Sangrà. It was not merely a formal event: the atmosphere combined the solemnity of the award with a clear desire to social and political reflection, in accordance with the discourse that the Finestres Foundation has been promoting in recent years.
From the stage, the importance of redistribute wealth to societyThis message is unusual at cultural events of this kind, especially when a significant portion of the funding comes from a pharmaceutical company. The management of the foundations linked to Ferrer International openly defended the fact that a substantial portion of the company's profits is allocated to cultural, social, sporting, and food-related projects, with a particular focus on initiatives that generate real impact.
Alongside the institutional intervention, the gala featured the participation of various figures from Barcelona's cultural and journalistic spheres, who reinforced the idea that The Finestres Awards have become a significant event within the literary calendar. Music also had its place, with the presence of scholarship students from the Conservatori itself, which helped to draw a bridge between literary creation, artistic training and philanthropic support.
Within this festive setting, the announcement of the narrative awards was combined with the proclamation of the comic book awards And the mentions of young talent shaped an evening that looked simultaneously to established literature and emerging careers. The result was a mosaic of authors, styles, and formats that made it clear that Finestres is not limited to a single genre or language.
The presence of Pujadas and Vogt on stage gave a face to two different ways of understanding fictionBut they were united by a shared belief in the power of stories. Their speeches, simple and without grandiloquence, focused on the concrete experience of writing, the difficulty of balancing literature and work life, and gratitude towards readers, independent bookstores, and small publishers that take a chance on risky works.
Finestres' role in the literary map of Spain and Europe
With this edition, the Finestres Awards reinforce their importance in the circuit of literary competitions in Spain and Europeespecially in the field of Catalan and Spanish narrative. Unlike other awards focused on sales volume or well-established names, Finestres' proposal seeks to place at the center the literary quality and originality of the voiceeven when it comes to authors who are still building their careers.
The dual linguistic perspective—Catalan and Spanish—transforms the awards into a meeting point between literary traditions that share territory but often circulate through different publishing and media circuitsThe fact that an Argentinian author residing in Catalonia wins in Spanish and a Catalan writer takes the prize in her own language reinforces this idea of constant dialogue between contexts and sensibilities.
From an editorial point of view, the competition also functions as Speaker for medium or small-sized stampsPublishers like L'Altra Editorial or H&O, which focus on carefully curated catalogs and works with a strong authorial presence, are among those that benefit. The impact of a well-funded prize with media coverage can translate into new editions, translations, and a more solid presence for these titles in bookstores throughout Spain and, potentially, in other European countries.
Furthermore, the prize's connection to a network of physical bookstores and a literary residency—located between Barcelona and the Empordà region—reinforces the idea that it is not just an annual event, but a a long-term cultural projectThe activities, meetings and presentations organized around Finestres keep the conversation about books and their authors alive throughout the year.
In an international context where major prizes with million-dollar figures grab headlines, Finestres's approach is situated at a level closer to the day-to-day reality of literary creation in Europe: significant but manageable sums. demanding selection criteria and an explicit commitment to bibliodiversity. This approach largely explains the award's rapid consolidation since its inception.
With the choice of Irene Pujadas and Silvana VogtThe Finestres Narrative Awards confirm their preference for stories that take risks, move away from mere local color, and view reality through distorting lenses, whether from within the body or from a town adrift amidst catastrophes. Two distinct novels, united by their radical faith in fiction, thus become emblems of an edition that champions imagination as a central tool of contemporary literature.