| Biografía Premios Obras Fotos Lee Gratis Noticias Sala de Prensa Fundació Jordi Sierra i Fabra Fundación Taller de Letras Jordi Sierra i Fabra Català English |
 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award 2010 JORDI SIERRA I FABRA FOUNDATION (Barcelona, Spain) Jordi Sierra i Fabra Foundation in Barcelona , Spain is a private non-profit organization, financed by its promoter and whose primary objective is to support young writers to start a literary career and to promote the pleasure of reading. The implementation of the Jordi Sierra i Fabra Literary Prize for young writers will be followed by scholarships, study centre, children and youngsters library, file, museum, conference centre, etc. 1 - Presentation 2 - Jordi Sierra i Fabra Literary Prize for Young Writers 3 - Contact Presentation For years, my home has been opened to any boy or girl who wants to see me, tell me about his or her things or interview me for some school project. And the same applies to young journalist, students, or university graduates with any interest in my work. When I was a child, I learnt what loneliness was, and even worst, what it was nobody believing in you. When I started publishing novels I promised I would never turn my back on anybody. I have always kept my word. Knowing this position of mine, for many years I have received novels and texts from young people throughout Spain. Even if it took me six month because of work or trips I had to make, I always read those works and replied to the writer candidates. It all reached such a volume that I wrote a novel called "Rabia" (Rage) (Ediciones SM for Spanish, Cruïlla in Catalonian), to sum up those experiences. Since then, all I have to do is tell them to read this novel, since everything I could tell them was in it. Nevertheless, I understand this was not enough for many of them. I could see myself at their age in each one of them. When I was a child I had a stutter and a bad one. When I was eight I went through a glass door and there I nearly left an arm, my nose and many body scars. In hospital, covered in bandages, I could not read, which was my passion, so I started to write and discovered that while I was writing I did not stutter. This was a revelation and then, I decided I wanted to be a writer. This is where the pain and suffering started. My father did not want me to do it, he banned me from writing and cried if he saw me doing it. He used to say "you cannot make a living out of that" and "you will starve to death". On top of everything, at school, apart from bullied for stuttering I got the worst possible marks in language and literature because of my excessive fantasy. I decided not to give in and wrote a 500-page novel when I was 12. And when I finished I had it very clear that I would be writer, whether I was going to be rich or poor, famous or not. Writing is more than that. My adolescence was rather traumatic in this sense. And strange as it may seem, after all those years, and even nowadays, things have not changed much. On the contrary, in such a materialistic age as ours, the loneliness of an adolescent writer is even worse. They constantly tell me "my father does not let me write", or "my father tells me to study something I can make money with", or "my father says I can write as a hobby, but you make money doing something with more openings". I wonder, isn't there any father who tells his son or daughter to simply try and be happy? I have always been of the opinion that you have to fight for your dreams. That it is better to earn one euro with pleasure than two in distress. That freedom is essential for life, in the same way as it is to be pleased with yourself and that, in the long run, those who do want they like doing are much richer. The spirit of the Jordi Sierra i Fabra Foundation was born out of all this story some years ago. One the one hand, it is normal that a writer wants to be sure that his files will not get lost after his death, and that those who now come to my home to research my work or the way I wrote any of my novels, can do the same in the future. But, on the other hand, my idea was to create a study centre, a children and youngsters library, conference centre, school and bedrooms for scholarship holders. Possibly an enormous project beyond my limits, but the final objective of the Foundation. Naturally, it is private and is exclusively financed by me. But we should turst. Life is fighting. My motto is still "Everything is possible (if you want it)". Jordi Sierra i Fabra Foundation was created in Spain with one single purpose: To help out young writers. How? For the moment, with a first step, already in progress, which is creating a literary award for writers under 18 years of age and granted with the help of FundaciÛn Santa MarÌa. Further to the prize which is awarded in money, the most important thing is that the winner will have his/her work published by Ediciones SM and the prize will be delivered annually during the night of the Fundación Santa María awards, when the results for other important awards such as Barco de Vapor, Gran Angular y the Graphic Illustration are also given. We cannot ask for more. This literary award will make many children and youngsters' dream possible. Once consolidated, the future will be as intense as we want it to be within our own limits. However, it would have been unfair on my side if I had only though of Spain to give my dream a form. I have received so much energy, strength and friendship from Latin America in my constant journeys to the other side of the Atlantic, that soon the Foundation had a double end. I have given wonderful lectures in many countries, I have been invited to fairs and congresses, I have publishers in Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, etc. By giving them unpublished works to be published in these countries was already a personal gift and a way to show my love to them, but by creating a mirror of the Spanish Foundation itself has been of course something greater. With the same spirit I have created the Fundación Taller de Letras Jordi Sierra i Fabra (Jordi Sierra i Fabra Writing Workhop Foundation) in Medllin, Colombia for Latin America. Both Foundations act independently from each other. Furthermore, the Foundation in Medellin, which started its activities in January, has got much wider and rooted objectives thanks to the management team formed by well known professionals from the world of Colombian culture. It intends to offer seminars, conferences, training for teachers and librariansÖ i.e. anything to do with literature, and particularly with children and young readers´ literature, with a special care to help future generations of young writers. Every personal project, every innitiative, and even more when talking about this magic world of books where we all get aroung, is created with desire and energy and with a huge dose of hope. In the short time that this piece of news has taken to spread, I can assure that I have received numerous demonstrations of support, mainly from writer colleagues in this pen trade that, luckily, is not subject to the selfishness, struggles and envies of adult literature world, which is so egocentric and loaded with self-complacency. We are working for the same objectives, each in his own understanding and knowledge: To make youngsters read, and, in this case, to make them write too. Jordi Sierra i Fabra Foundation is also yours. J.S.i F. 2004 Jordi Sierra i Fabra Literary Prize for Young Writers Jordi Sierra i Fabra Foundation in collaboration with the publisher Grupo SM, both with offices in Spain and Latin America, announce the Jordi Sierra i Fabra Literary Prize for Young Writers 2007 to encourage Spanish and Latin American students the pleasure of literary creation and love for written words, through works that reflect universal values such as peace, love, harmony and respect, to contribute to a better world, full of hope and where books have an essential role and new generations of authors grown constantly. This prize will be granted according to the following RULES 1 - Any person younger than 18 years of age, of any nationality or origin can be a candidate to the prize as long as the works presented comply with the description in the rules and maintain the spirit that this Prize supports. The work must be written in Spanish, must be original, unpublished and should not have received any other awards or be a candidate to receive any other award during the same dates. This edition will admit any young person who is under 18 years of age on the 15th September 2006. 2 - The work must be at least 60 pages long, in DIN A4 format (210 x 297 mm) clearly typed in double space lines only on one side. No handwritten or illustrated work will be admitted. The candidates must send three printed and bound or sewn copies and, when possible on a CD ROM. The author must sign each copy with his/her pseudonym (title and author pseudonym) and must attach a closed envelope with the same motto as the novel clearly written on it. Inside the closed envelope, he/she must includee his/her name and surnames, date of birth, personal address and contact telephone and a photocopy of his/her Identity Card. Each author can only present one work. 3 - The works summitted must be narrative on any subject, and the candidate can choose any format or genre, single novel or set of tales, children or youngsters category. The jury will value the literary quality and the creative talent of the author/authoress. 4 - The original copies, in an envelope with the text "Para el Premio Literario Jordi Sierra i Fabra", will be sent to the following address: Fundació Jordi Sierra i Fabra c/ Johann Sebastian Bach nº3 08021 Barcelona España 5 - Once the jury's decision has been made public, the copies of unawarded works must be destroyed and no claims will be accepted on this respect. Furthermore, no correspondence will be held on them The organizing entity is not liable for any of the possible losses or damage to original prints or for the delays or any other circumstances involving mail services or any other third parties that may affect the shipment of the works participating in the Prize. 6 - The deadline to admit original prints will end on 15th September 2005. All authors participating in this competition accept these rules and commit not to ask for their work to be returned once it has been submitted. Furthermore, the authors will commit that no previous or simultaneous publishing compromises affect the work submitted to the competition. 7 - The members of the jury will be chosen by the Jordi Sierra i Fabra Foundation and will be formed by literature specialists of different fields, while two of its members must belong to the organizing entities. The name of the jury members will not be published until the moment of granting the Prize. 8 - The jury´s decision is undisputable and will be published between February and March 2006. The organizing entity holds the right to change this date at its own convenience. The Prize will be given during an act organized for this purpose by the Fundación Santa MarÌa on a date still to be determined and which will coincide with the delivery of the Barco de Vapor and Gran Angular prizes for children´s and youngsters´ literature. The winner of the prize must attend the event in the company of an adult member of his/her family who will be responsible for him/her. 9 - The prize cannot be left ungranted. Only one work will be considered as the winner and an Honour List will be produced with all the finalists' works to highlight the rest of candidates. The jury is entitled to solve any matter in its compentencies that may have not been sufficiently explicit in these rules. 10 - A) There is one single, total Prize for an amount of three thousand (EUR 3,000) Euros donated by the Jordi Sierra i Fabra Foundation. The Prize includes the publishing of the winning work by Ediciones SM and its comercialization in Spain and in the Latin American countries where the publisher has branch offices. In order to make its reading easier for children, the language in the text may be adapted to that of the different South American countries where it is to be sold. B) The monetary amount of the Prize will count as part of the author royalties as established in the book publishing contract. The said contract will be signed according to the terms in these rules and the Spanish Ley de Propiedad Intelectual (Spanish Act for Intellectual Property). The author will receive 5% of his royalties and the Jordi Sierra i Fabra Foundation another 5%, so that the winning writer will also be contributing to help and train other young authors and will therefore form part of the objectives of the Jordi Sierra i Fabra Foundation. C) When the winning author is under age, the monetary Prize and any of the future annual royalties will be transferred into an bank account in his/her name, and his/her legal representatives must agree to dedicate the whole amount of the Prize for the development, training and education of the author and not allow the money be spent on any other purpose. 11 - The author/authoress of the winning work transfers to Ediciones SM the exclusive right to exploit the same in all its forms, worldwide and during the maximum period of time determined by the legislation in force. Furthermore, the winner agrees to participate in person in all the acts to present or promote his/her work that the publisher estimates adequate and within his/her possibilities. 12 After the undersigning of the corresponding book publishing contract by his/her author, and in compliance with section 10-B in these rules, Ediciones SM hold the right to publish any of the novels submitted to the contest which the publisher considers to be of their interest, even if they have failed to win the Prize, Barcelona, March 2006. Contact The Foundation address is: c/ Johann Sebastian Bach nº3, 08021 Barcelona, España. www.sierraifabra.com Telephone: (34) 93-201-43-64 Mail: fundacio.jsif@ibernet.com |