A shocking tale of beauty and devastation. The writer from Cadiz Antonio Tocornal has risen with the VIII Las Dalias International Short Story Award thanks to his story «The memory of the fingers"A poetic and heartbreaking work that narrates the invisible but persistent mark left by..." war in a devastated city.
The jury's decision, decided unanimously, recognizes a text of contained rhythm and precise languagecapable of transforming ruin into a greater art. "The Memory of Fingers" doesn't denounce, it moves. It speaks from the absence, of what is no longer there, of what remains in the skin long after the silence. lucid reflection on human fragility, written with a prose as delicate as it is implacable.
The award, endowed with 3.000 Euros, has received this year the impressive figure of 1.526 stories from 32 countries, consolidating itself as one of the most important literary awards in the Spanish language within the short story genre.
The winning story will be published, in both Spanish and English, in the next edition of Las Dalias Ibiza & Formentera Magazine.
The jury was composed of Maribel Andrés Llamero, Alberto de la Rocha, Laura Ferrer Arambarri and Ben Clark, coordinator of the contest, who selected the winning text from among 16 finalists.
Antonio Tocornal (San Fernando, Cádiz, 1964) is a renowned voice in the current literary scene. He has won some of the most prestigious awards in the Spanish language and has a solid career as a novelist, short story writer, editor, and educator. In recent years, his name has been linked to titles such as «"Low Tide", "Malasanta" or "Cadillac Ranch"«, a work with which he won the Andalusia Critics' Prize and the Setenil Prize in 2024.
With this edition, Las Dalias adds a new name to the list of winners of an award that grows with each year and confirms that, even in Ibiza, literature has a place where it can continue to excite.
