2023-10-14 20:06:10
“A surprise.” Another one. The writer Patxi Zubizarreta (Ordizia, 1964), resident in Vitoria, has won the Euskadi Prize for Children’s and Young People’s Literature for the work ‘Zerria’ (Erein), the same title for which he was awarded the National Prize just ago. three weeks. A milestone that recognizes Unna’s work in Basque as one of the most outstanding firms in the field of literature for the youngest.
«The only award for which I submitted ‘Zerria’ was for our small Nobel Prize in Euskadi, the Lizardi Prize that authors like Mariasun Landa have won, and from there it has made its own path. I’m glad that it was liked by the juries,” Zubizarreta said about a title that has colorful illustrations by Antton Olariaga. Precisely, Landa, also from Gipuzkoa, won the Children’s and Youth Literature Prize of the Spanish Ministry of Culture twenty years ago with the work ‘A Crocodile Under the Bed’ (originally written in the Basque language, ‘Krokodiloa ohe azpian’). That 2003, the Euskadi award went to Fernando Morillo for ‘Izar-malkoak’.
The other Basque author who holds the National Prize for Youth Literature is Juan Cruz Igerabide by ‘Titirijari alphabet: short letters’ (2018). Neither at that time matched the jury’s criterion at the autonomic level and that year it was Eider Rodriguez who won the Euskadi prize for ‘Santa Familia’.
This verdict in which different juries highlight ‘Zerra’ over other titles is confirmed by one of the great literary titles of recent years in its field. Zubizarreta had already won the Euskadi Prize in this category with ‘Gizon izandako mutila’ (1998); ‘Pantaleon badoa’ (2006); ‘Xia Tenzinen bidaia miresgarria’ (2010); and ‘Korri, Kuru, Korri!’ (2019).
On this occasion, she shares honors with Arantxa Urretabizkaia, collaborator of EL CORREO, and Joseba Larratxe, Euskadi Literature Awards for the novel ‘Azken Etxea’ and the illustration of the book ‘Ni ez naiz Mikel Laboa’, respectively. Each one will receive a prize of 18,000 euros. The press conference in which the winners were announced was held this Wednesday at the San Telmo Museum in Donostia. A place that the Ordiziarra author remembered from different visits, some of them when he was a child. «The objects of the Altzo giant were shown there. His hat, shoes and canes, all huge, and again he continued to surprise me there,” the author explained to EL CORREO about the sensations he had at the time of delivery.
The book ‘Zerria’ – it has not yet been published in Spanish, although it has a couple of offers from publishers – is “atypical” and peculiar due to its colorful illustrations. But also for a story that deals with human history or the borders between man and beast. All while remaining aimed at a youth audience. The jury highlighted that the work “moves away from the simplicity and typical clichés” associated with the genre.
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