Wednesday, November 5, 2014

2014 Premios Nocte

The past week-end, during the Gothic Week of Madrid (Semana Gótica de Madrid), in a ceremony held at the National Museum of Romanticism in Madrid, the Spanish Horror Writers Association (Asociación Española de Autores de Narrativa de Terror) has announced the winners of 2014 Premios Nocte:

BEST NATIONAL NOVEL

El hombre que nunca sacrificaba las gallinas Viejas (The Man Who Never Sacrificed Old Hens)  by Darío Vilas (Tyrannosaurus books)

Marquitos Laguna has retired from his job. Now he prefers to care for his garden and to collect the eggs of his hens. Before, in other age, Marquitos was a vigilante of few words, a crytozoological killer in the abundant island of Simetría, a two meters wall of punches sheathed in a glove of a man in a black suit. But not anymore, his darkest nights were left behind. Or it is what he believed until a few hours ago. Because suddenly, the old hens, the ones he never sacrifice, God knows why, have started to flutter here and there, leaving all covered in feathers. The land of the garden that now is dedicated to caring, has begun to tremble. The rotting flesh of a lifetime in black strives to break through from the base of jagged and broken fingernails. And Marquitos, a two meters wall of love down at heel, fears the worse:
That his darkest nights return. That he’ll choke with the smell of a Magnolia.
Or that the time to sacrifice again has come.

“The Man Who Never Sacrificed Old Hens” is a story of bizarre realism, of an island that houses all the human filth, of ghosts from the past returning to down whiskey glasses on a bar counter. Of imaginary vampires, of mental zombies accompanying the protagonist and of a vengeful entity intending to finish a murder masterpiece: The Blue Magnolia.

BEST NATIONAL SHORT STORY

La mirada del Dodo (Dodo’s Gaze) by José María Tamparillas (Anatomías secretas / Nostrum)

BEST NATIONAL ANTHOLOGY

Umbría (Umbria) by Santiago Eximeno (El humo del escritor)

The city of Umbría is a kaleidoscope of perversion and loss, an universe of stories linked by elements such as barbed wire, sex and loneliness, a place that allows Santiago Eximeno to demonstrate the explicit horror of human nature. Umbría is origin and destination and it is present in the memories of all those who have hidden their fears.

With this collection, besides raising a physical and tangible Umbría, Santiago Eximeno gives form to one of the best and most striking examples of argumentative potential of the fix-up technique in literature.

BEST TRANSLATED BOOK

La Casa de Hojas (The House of Leaves) by Mark Z. Danielewski (Alpha Decay)

HONORARY AWARD


Congratulations to all the winners!

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