Portal de Turismo de Castilla y León

Dates

October 30, 2025

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For the third consecutive year, and commissioned by the Castilian-Leonese Institute of Language , José Ignacio García, one of the foremost specialists in the novel and short story currently in our Community, returns to scan with his panoramic and expectant vision the territories of short and long distance regional narrative; and after his two previous experiences ( The Call of the Books and The Future is Written ), where he paused before the works that had chosen him as a reader and the new values of our literature written in prose, this time he focuses his attention on those essential and fully mature writers who, far from remaining in no man's land, inhabit the land of all self-respecting readers and whose words distill the pure essence of quality literature, regardless of whether they have been recognized, or not, with awards of considerable relevance and their work enjoys, or not, the favor of the major publishing houses.
And these essential writers, who have told everything so far, still have many brilliant stories to tell. These nine essential writers are: Jesús Carazo, Ignacio Sanz, Gregorio Fernández Castañón, Luis Marigómez, Yolanda Izard, Luis García Jambrina, Ramón García Mateos, Victoria Pelayo Rapado, and Gonzalo Calcedo.

José Ignacio García (San Sebastián, 1965). Writer, editor, literary critic, anthologist, and cultural manager. He is the author of the short story collections It's So Hard to Say I Love You , Unsatisfied Lives , Between the Future and Nothingness ( Miguel Delibes Narrative Prize, 2009), The Castaway's Smile , The Secret of Her Name (translated into English), The Story I'd Like to Write with You , Some Stories Aren't Good for Writing Love Songs , The Memory of Chrysanthemums , and Where It's Always Winter . He is also the author of the short novel My Life, in Your Name .

His short works have won numerous national and international literary competitions and have appeared in magazines and collective books. He is the founder of the cultural project "Contamos la Navidad" (We Tell Christmas) (winner of the La armonía de las Letras cultural recognition award, 2015), and has coordinated its fourteen editions. He has also coordinated several collective anthologies, including "Valladolid sobre ruedas" (Valladolid on Wheels ) and " Cuentos Pendientes" ( Pending Stories), "43 Voices of the Castilian and Leonese Short Story of the 21st Century ," which is already considered a benchmark and subject of study for contemporary Castilian and Leonese short stories in some universities. As a cultural promoter, he is the coordinator of the "Cuéntame Portillo" International Short Story Competition, the José Luis Salvador Memorial , and organizes the Medina del Campo and Portillo book fairs in Valladolid. As a literary critic, he is a frequent lecturer and contributes to esRadioesRadio , ABC , and La Nueva Crónica de Leon . A selection of his best reviews published to date in both newspapers was published in 2023 in the book Twenty-Six Tin Soldiers.

His first full-length novel, The Flight of the Dolphins , was published in April 2025. He is a member of the jury for the Castilla y León Critics' Prize.

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