Alicia Giménez Bartlett receives the 2022 Xàbia Negra La Criminala award

Sunday 6th November 2022 · Mike Smith
Source: Ajuntament de Xàbia

The Xàbia Negra cultural festival closed it fifth edition with the delivery of the La Criminala award to the author Alicia Giménez Bartlett, recognising the great literary career and contribution to the noir genre who has published 24 novels and received a dozen awards, including the prestigious Premio Planeta for her 2015 work ‘Hombres Desnudos’.

“I’m delighted,” the author said. “I have received other prizes, but when I told my friends that they were going to give me one called La Criminala, they were fascinated and asked where I would receive it. Xàbia is an open place, where everyone is welcome, and I have had a really good time here. And I promise: I’ll be back.”

In addition to Alicia Giménez Bartlett, distinguished authors such as Jerónimo Tristante, Mónica Rouanet, Blas Ruiz Grau, Vicente Garrido, Nieves Abarca, Jordi Colonques and Joan Canela attended the festival, along with the editor-in-chief of Events at the Levante-EMV newspaper and the former head of the CNP in Valencia, Esther Maldonado.

The number of attendees doubles

The fifth edition of Xàbia Negra experienced a great increase in attendance by the public and more than 400 people attended the different activities organised over the weekend, including meetings with authors, reading clubs, literary matinees, monologues, writer’s battle, and the awards ceremony.

These figures double those registered for the last edition and represent a quantitative leap in public support for this festival, which is held in the autumn period to diversify the tourist offer of the municipality, which attracts thousands of holidaymakers during the summer months.

Mayor José Chulvi said that there has been a “very positive assessment of an edition that has been the consolidation of a festival that is already a benchmark in the Marina Alta. We want Xàbia Negra to continue growing and we congratulate the organization, and above all we want to express our gratitude to all the people who have participated in the festival during these three days”.

Story and short film awards

In addition to the La Criminala award, the festival dished out other prizes, including two in the story contest organized by the IES La Mar de Xàbia. Wengyao Chen won the contest in Spanish with the story ‘Era Yo’, while Lucas Portillo has won the contest in Valencian with ‘Obsessions’.

In the short film contest organized by the Escola de Cinema Riu Rau, the winner was Manu Font’s team with the short entitled ‘Fugir’.

Quico Moragues: “The level and attendance of the public have increased”

The councilor responsible for Culture in Xàbia, Quico Moragues, also made a “very positive” assessment. “It was three very intense days and we can say that in terms of audience, participation has been greater than last year, and the level has also increased. We have already started working on the sixth edition of Xàbia Negra”.

For his part, Santiago Álvarez, director of the event, declared himself “very satisfied with the public’s response to the activities we have proposed. The fact that attendance has doubled shows that it is a very attractive cultural proposal for the public. We are going to continue working to make Xàbia Negra even bigger. The attendees have been able to enjoy the presence of top-level writers and they will be able to continue doing so in the coming years”.