Eduardo Jordá receives the 15th Eurostars Hotels Award on Travel Writing
Eduardo Jordá (Palma de Mallorca, 1956), poet, translator and lecturer of creative writing, won the fifteenth edition of the Eurostars Hotels Award on Travel Writing. The work, titled Pájaros que se quedan (Otoño en Pensilvania) received the juryʼs recognition, who also highlighted the high quality of the originals that were submitted in the contest.
Eduardo Jordá (Palma de Mallorca, 1956), poet, translator and lecturer of creative writing, won the fifteenth edition of the Eurostars Hotels Award on Travel Writing. The work, titled Pájaros que se quedan (Otoño en Pensilvania) received the juryʼs recognition, who also highlighted the high quality of the originals that were submitted in the contest.
Jordá received the award yesterday, in the award ceremony in the summer celebration of the Hotusa Group, “Mirando al Mar”, held in the Eurostars Grand Marina Hotel 5* G.L. The Hotusa Group awards the winner a total of 18,000 euros and guarantees the edition and publication of the winning work and its distribution around the rooms of the 100 hotels Eurostars Hotels has in the main destinations in Spain, Europe, Latin America, United States and Africa. Also, after some months, RBA Libros will publish the book to sell it in Spanish bookstores.
The literary award promoted by the Hotusa Group in collaboration with RBA Libros and the University of Barcelona reached this edition with 159 original pieces presented by authors from 22 different countries. In particular, most of the works came from Spain, a total of 87; followed by 62 manuscripts from Latin America. The resting figures are works from different countries, among which are the United States, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Israel, the United Kingdom and Portugal.
The jury of the Eurostars Hotels Award n Travel Writing is built by the writers Carme Riera, member of the Spanish Royal Academy; Alfredo Conde, Nadal Prize and National Prize of Narrative; Ana Sanjurjo, director of Hotusa Hotels; Adolfo Sotelo, professor of Spanish Philology at the University of Barcelona; and Luisa Gutiérrez, editor in chief in RBA Libros.
Last editionʼs awarded work was Mundos Extremos, by the painter and tenured lecturer of History of Art of the Technical University of Valencia, Amalia Martínez Muñoz.
The Eurostars Hotels Award on Travel Writing is framed in the idea by the Hotusa Group to offer their channels as a support, knowledge and sharing of culture through the organization and literary prizes and other artistic disciplines. The Hotusa Group works on the artistic project Eurostars Exhibitions, offering emerging artists the chance to show their works in several hotels of the chain, apart from the call for photography contests for professionals and amateurs in the destinations the hotel chain is present.
About the winner
Eduardo Jordá (Palma de Mallorca, 1956), poet, translator and lecturer of creative writing, is the winner of the fifteenth edition of the Eurostars Hotels Award on Travel Writing with the work Pájaros que se quedan (Otoño en Pensilvania), with the full recognition of the jury.
Eduardo Jordá has a long and solid literary career. He published the novel Pregúntale a la noche (2007) and the books Playa de los Alemanes (2006) and Yo vi a Nick Drake (2014). He is the author of the travel books Tánger (1993) and Norte Grande (2002), narrating the journey through the Chilean Atacama desert, apart from the travel pieces in Lugares que no cambian (2004).
The volume Pero sucede (Renacimiento, 2010) gathers a selection of his poetry. The book Lo que tiene alas. De Gógol a Raymond Carver (2014) shows a series of essays on short story classics. As a translator, he has translated into Spanish, among other authors, Joseph Conrad, R. L. Stevenson, Mercè Rodoreda, Blai Bonet and James Salter. Since 2005, he directs a creative writing workshop in Seville and teaches writing at the International University of Valencia.
On the work
A small university city in Pennsylvania, near the Appalachians, is the scene in which this story takes place, with elements of journal, essay, novel and travel book. America, North America, this “big bridge over a river” dividing two big oceans, is the main character of a book that reminds us of the travel literature inspired by Chatwin, Thubron, Leigh Fermor and others.
The fireflies from the last days of summer, the pumpkins decorating the house when Halloween is approaching, the angle where the Gettysburg battle took place -the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War-, indescribable colors of autumn leaves, illegal immigrants that work in agricultural lands, overweight people who only go outside at night to buy in the supermarket, isolated farms where illegal amphetamine is produced… these are only some elements that build the particular geography of this unforgettable autumn in Pennsylvania.