The Best Youth Stories Literary Competition, held in the Alicante region, has announced its winners for this year’s edition. The provincial auditorium hosted the ceremony, organized by the Provincial Booksellers Association with support from the regional institution. This event marked the 17th edition, drawing a large audience from the local education community. More than 12,000 schoolchildren representing 80 educational centers participated in activities connected to the competition, and a total of 108 works from across the region were showcased during the event.
The top prize was awarded to Grace Bellot, a 3rd ESO student at IES Gaia de San Vicente del Raspeig, for her story December 8, 1980. The second prize went to Why, Sasha, why?, authored by April Spirit Martin Gonzalez, a 4th ESO student at IES Francisco Figueras Pacheco in Alicante. The third prize was earned by Carlos Pastor Moreno, completing the 4th ESO at Nuestra Señora del Remedio de Alicante, for his piece Unfinished stories. A separate editorial award was presented for the work Quotation, written by Maria Crespo Ripoll, a 2nd ESO student at Esclavas SCJ school in Alcoy.
The edition also featured international participation, with three schools from Cúcuta, Colombia taking part in the competition. The awards ceremony, which included a live reading of the winning story, was broadcast to audiences across the Atlantic, allowing remote participants to follow the event in real time and celebrate the achievements on both sides of the ocean.