Toni Pérez presents the Juan Gil-Albert International Award for Aphoristic Writing

The president of the Diputación de Alicante, Toni Pérez, awarded the International Juan Gil-Albert Prize for Aphoristic and Personal Writing to Mario Pérez Antolín this afternoon for his book Idear lo insólito. This event marks the culmination of the first edition of the contest, organized by the Instituto Alicantino de Cultura Juan Gil-Albert, to pay tribute to the Alcoyan poet on the 120th anniversary of his birth and the 30th of his death.

Toni Pérez congratulated the award-winning author and highlighted the high quality of the nearly fifty works submitted. "From the Diputación, there was no better way to honor the figure of Juan Gil-Albert than by creating an award bearing his name, while bringing visibility to a genre not often highlighted in literary calls, but with numerous authors writing from introspection," the president emphasized.

The ceremony featured the participation of the IAC director, Cristina Martínez, and former directors José Luis V. Ferris and José Ferrándiz. Additionally, the poet's niece, Claudia Simón Aura, participated in the reading of several poems by Gil-Albert. The music of the clarinet duo Asia Fraccaro and Ismael Vicente Grau Rodríguez, from the Conservatorio Superior Óscar Esplá de Alicante, joined a projection of images from the Biblioteca Valenciana selected by Manuel Valero, closing the evening.

Pérez Antolín (Stuttgart, 1964), recognized as one of Spain's leading aphorists, received 5,000 euros and a unique piece designed by Mario-Paul and Begoña M. Deltell, members of the IAC. His work Idear lo insólito combines depth of thought with brilliant style, addressing topics such as power, ethics, aesthetics, literature, and metaphysics through micro-stories, poetic prose, and brief essays.

The author stated that the book reflects a skeptical humanism imbued with melancholy, advocating for human dignity in the face of any obstacle. He also highlighted Gil-Albert as a key figure in 20th-century literature, admiring his style, transversal thinking, and unwavering ethics.

This first edition of the prize aims to establish itself as a benchmark for promoting and valuing aphoristic writing in the literary landscape.