Italian resident of Barcelona wins best Euro-Mediterranean story of the year

Barcelona (ACN).- 'Milena è una bomba' won the prize for best story at the European Institute for the Mediterranean’s (IEMed) ‘Sea of Words’ contest. The contest is co-organised by IEMed and the Anna Lindh Foundation. The story was written by an Italian resident of Barcelona, 27-year-old Alfredo Zucchi. His story was chosen out of a total of 336 submitted. The prizes for 2nd and 3rd place went to 28-year-old Israeli Ayelet Gundar for her story ‘Sunset’ and Ana Pesoa, a 28-year-old from Portugal, for her story ‘Steticista’. The prizes were presented on Monday night.

Up to 20 young writers from 17 different countries were selected as finalists in the ‘Sea of Words’ competition. The contest began in 2008 to promote the creation of literary works about intercultural dialogue in the Mediterranean. Zucchi, Gundar and Pesoa were awarded their prizes on Monday during an event at the Picasso Museum of Barcelona.

20 ‘Sea of Words’ finalists attended today’s event. The young writers came from countries such as Albania, Croatia, Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Italy, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Turkey and Spain.

The winners were selected by a panel of international judges formed by literary critic Elisabetta Bartuli (Italy), writers Najwa Barakat (Lebanon), Jamila Hassoune (Morocco), and Pere Antoni Pons (Spain), and Pierre Joseph Mejlak (Malta), winner of the 2009 edition of the competition.

Writers who submit work to ‘Sea of Words’ must be 30 years old or less and live in one of the 37 countries in the European Mediterranean. The competition’s objective is to promote “the production of short stories on re-establishing bridges of trust, dialogue and reconciliation in the Mediterranean and in Europe, with the objective of showing the different sensitivities and realities in the Euro-Mediterranean region, from the point of view of the youths who live there.”