The Euskadi Literature Awards have the first three winners of the 2023 edition: Arantxa Urretabizkaia, Patxi Zubizarreta and Joseba Larratxe 'Josevisky'. Urretabizkaia has been awarded the Literature in Euskera award for her work Azken etxea (Pamiela), while Zubizarreta has been awarded the Children and Youth Literature Award for her book Zerria (Erein), and Larratxe Ni ez naiz Mikel Laboa (Elkar), a partner of AR.

The Minister of Culture and Linguistic Policy, Bingen Zupiria, has given the names of the winners at the event held at the San Telmo Museum in San Sebastián. He also recalls that there are still four prizes to be awarded. The pending announcements – Spanish literature, Basque literary translation, Basque essay and Spanish essay – will be announced next week. The Euskadi Literature Awards will take place on November 15 at the Muxikebarri Center of Getxo.

Special and aesthetic work

In the work Azken etxea by Arantxa Urretabizkaia, the jury members highlighted the “formal peculiarity and aesthetic choice” offered by the work. He also highlighted “the risks from a narrative point of view”. Urretabizkaia stresses that “if life allows it” will not be his last book: “Society expects my elders to rest without doing anything else.”

Call in exchange

For Patxi Zubizarreta is the fifth Prize of Children and Youth Literature in Euskera. The author describes the book Zerria as a “memory exercise”. He says that literature has to be “something that moves us and will change us”: “To rebel against the society we are creating and creating another.” According to jury members, Zerria is a “very appropriate example” to enjoy literature and grow as a person: "Youth moves away from the simplicity of literature and typical topics."

Fresh proposal

Joseba Larratxe, collaborator of ARGIA, among others, has pointed out that drawing the life of the Donostian artist in Ez naiz Mikel Laboa has been “very special”: “For me it is an important figure”. She also thanked Chair Mikel Laboa for allowing her to practice her profession in non-“normal” conditions. The jury has awarded Larretxe for his "complicated work with a fresh and memorable proposal." He also praised the work because it received “many cultural references and symbols”.