Que se contradicen’, by Carmen Rotger, wins the IV International Poetry Prize ‘Ciudad de Estepona’.

The Mallorcan poet balances in her work a small number of events that refer to childhood, loneliness, love, time and the self.

The City Council has increased to 7,000 euros the prize money for this edition of the literary contest that has reached record number of participants.

The mayor of Estepona, José María García Urbano, has announced that the IV International Poetry Prize ‘Ciudad de Estepona’ has been awarded to the work ‘Que se contradicen’, by the Mallorcan poet Carmen Rotger Ordóñez. This literary contest, organized by the City Council of Estepona, has increased for its fourth edition the prize money to 7,000 euros. The winning work will also be published by Pre-Textos, one of the most renowned publishers in the Spanish language.

The members of the jury emphasized that ‘Que se contradicen’ “is a captivating and fascinating book with overflows towards the theatrical, the philosophical and the narrative. It balances, with elegance, great mastery and subtlety, a small number of events that refer to childhood, loneliness, love, time or the self. The voice, which says and contradicts itself at the same time, carries other voices and in them each of the readers”.

The jury, which has chosen the winning work by majority, was composed of María Ángeles Pérez López, Luis García Montero, Marta Fernández Vázquez, Juan Gallego Benot, Alberto Conejero López, Ana Fernández-Villaverde, Ben Clark and Manuel Borras Arana, editor of the winning work.

The mayor of Estepona, José María García Urbano, highlighted the consolidation of this literary award that was born with the vocation of permanence and which predicts many years of life given the growing interest in each edition. On this occasion a record number of participants has been reached with more than 2,000 works submitted.

During the reading of the jury’s decision, which took place in the Felipe VI Auditorium, the councilor has argued that the growth that the city has experienced in recent years, has “also been reflected in the cultural field, with the provision of new spaces such as the Mirador del Carmen, its exhibition halls, as well as the new library that will open soon and the facilities for the conservatory that will begin operating next year”.

The event also featured a poetry recital by the poet Luis García Montero, and a performance by La Bien Querida.

The finalist books in this IV International Poetry Prize ‘City of Estepona’ were: ‘Via Dante’, ‘Borges Device’, ‘That contradict’, ‘To love is to walk on water’, ‘The theme’, ‘Spinning the desert’, ‘Our heritage is not preceded by a will’, ‘Amarilis’, ‘Objects of deep sky’ and ‘The new life’.

Carmen Rotger Ordoñez (Palma de Mallorca, 1996). In 2014 she moved to Madrid, where she studied Law and International Relations. At university she won several poetry and short story prizes within the Florencio Segura Contest, and wrote and directed four short plays. At the end of his studies he became a resident of the XVIII Promotion of the Antonio Gala Foundation, where he created with other colleagues the magazine La Novicia. There he also wrote his first two novels, one of which was awarded the second prize in the IV Certamen Biblioteca Fundación Antonio Gala. In recent years she has collaborated in the project Mujeres Mirando Mujeres, and has premiered with her small theater company her first full-length play ‘Sola frente a un mamut’ (Alone in front of a mammoth).

She has published some poems in the magazines Casa País, Digo.palabra.txt and Tibia. Since December 2023 she has a scholarship at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid to develop a creative project in literature.