Pedro Montalbán-Kroebel has been named the winner of the third Juan Gil-Albert International Prize for Aphoristic Writing, organised by the Alicante Institute of Culture. His winning work, titled Tu mirada prestada, querido Juan, comes with a cash prize of €5,000.
Described by the author as a “literary exorcism,” the text features a dialogue between the narrator and the memory of Juan Gil-Albert, a prominent Spanish poet and writer. Montalbán-Kroebel was selected from 33 submissions, and his work reflects a profound personal testimony, where the narrator engages with the legacy of Gil-Albert, to whom he has dedicated the past four years.
“It is an exercise in introspective writing: a collection of reflections, memories, and aphorisms through which the narrator, often using an epistolary format, attempts to distinguish and define the boundary between himself and the man he has studied,” Montalbán-Kroebel explained.
The themes explored in his work include the human condition, the passage of time, death, identity, and his perspective on the tumultuous times we live in. By writing to Gil-Albert, using the poet’s gaze as a “borrowed reflection,” he aims to portray his own youth and transform the shadow of the poet into something tangible, “alien to himself, with the hope that, by being transformed into another, it will cease to inhabit him.”
The jury for this edition was presided over by Juan de Dios Navarro, the Deputy for Culture, and included Jaime Siles, Mari Paz Moreno, Eduardo Boix, Raúl Ordás, Joaquín Penalva, and Cristina Martínez.
The award ceremony is scheduled for 19 November at 18:30 in Casa Bardin, where Montalbán-Kroebel will receive a traditional statuette designed by Begoña M. Deltell, based on a logo created by Mario-Paul Martínez for the prize. As is customary, students from the Óscar Esplá Higher Conservatory of Music in Alicante will perform works created by students from the Composition department, based on texts from the previous winner's book, Inexactos y verdaderos, by Raúl Ordás.
Following the ceremony, a discussion on Juan Gil-Albert and his aphoristic literature will take place, featuring Montalbán-Kroebel alongside singer-songwriter Amancio Prada and writer Itziar Mínguez Arnáiz.
Montalbán-Kroebel is a renowned Spanish playwright, born in Brazil, who has premiered and published a dozen theatrical works since his first text appeared in 2002. A deep connoisseur of Gil-Albert's work, he published La fascinación de Gil-Albert in 2006 and has received numerous accolades, including the 2025 City of Castelló Theatre Prize, the Pere Capellá Prize, and the Lluís Solà i Sala Prize. His works have been translated into English, Italian, and Greek, and he is also the author of around twenty short pieces and stories, having adapted and translated classics by Goethe, Guillaume Apollinaire, and George Tabori.
