Havana writer Maykel Rafael Paneque won the Guillermo Vidal national narrative contest, information released on Friday afternoon at Maceo Park, at the closing of the day named after the author of Matarile.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- The jury made up of María Liliana Celorrio, Yunier Riquenes, and Manuel García Verdecia, after analyzing the 11 works in competition, decided to award the prize to the book of short stories Un fin tan próximo, "for the selection of arguments that delve into the characteristics of human nature such as sexual morbidity, violence, the confrontations of interests, envy, but with an insight that saves them from the routine, elaborated with a structure where the due structuring of conflicts, the use of an effective language, the play with characters that are usually reiterated throughout the book, as well as a skillful handling of the changes in the narrative point of view stand out".
In a dialogue with 26, via the Internet, Paneque confessed: "Winning the Guillermo Vidal award is an immense, unexpected joy that fills me with emotion. He is an author I admire. His tenacity and his commitment to challenges define the tone of very personal writing. I don't think there is a writer in Cuba more iconoclastic and irreverent than him, with a fierce and memorable narrative boldness.
"I don't think any award legitimizes a work, not even the Nobel Prize. Validity is something that the work itself must deserve. Of course, an award like the Guillermo Vidal gives visibility, a certain resonance that motivates the reader who doesn't know you to take a look at your writing. In addition, it comes with another prize: access to the catalog of Union Editions, a publishing house of legendary weight and prestige."
According to him, Un fin tan próximo is made up of seven stories, and each one, in its way, foreshadows an unexpected ending and shows the fragility of human nature, and how unpredictable it can become when faced with extreme situations.
"They are stories that speak of memory loss, involuntary confinement, organ trafficking, child abuse, kidnappings and settling of scores..., in scenarios marked by paranoia, physical or psychological violence, and mental asphyxiation."
"I also pay tribute to writers I admire. The story La danza de los hurones is a tribute to Juan Carlos Onetti, Cartas a un señorito en París pays tribute to Julio Cortázar, Los sueños traicionados to Milan Kundera, El cachorro del tigre to Herta Müller.... In each tribute there is an attempt to approach the experience, with the language that I enjoyed so much in their creations because for me literature is an exceptional use of language, a unique register with words that we use every day," said the author.
Maykel Rafael Paneque has published numerous books, among which are Todo será breve como el descanso (II Prize La casa por la ventana 2013 and Cienfuegos City Fernandina de Jagua Fundation Award 2016), Noches para desertar (Accésit of the Félix Pita Rodríguez Award 2016), El sueño en alguna parte (Hermanos Loynaz Award 2016), Siete piedras en tu nombre (Emilio Ballagas Award 2016), Libro de los indocumentados, Viendo la nieve arder (Matanzas City Foundation Award 2021), among other titles, also laureates in several contests.
The Guillermo Vidal Award, for about three lustrums, has favored the publication of works of marked quality. An example of this is the volume "Las últimas vacas no van a morir," by Ulises Rodríguez Febles (winner in 2017), which has just been selected by critics as the best novel published on the Island between 2021 and 2022. An excellent way to honor Guille, who revolutionized the Cuban narrative of the 20th century.