The jury for the 2026 Ciutat de València Literary Awards has announced the winners of its 44th edition, which will be published in accordance with the co-publishing agreements outlined in the competition rules. Organised by the València City Council, the awards received a total of 1,966 entries across categories including narrative, poetry, theatre, and essay, in both Valencian and Spanish, as well as comic in either language.
In the Valencian categories, Carlos Loreiro López won the Isabel de Villena prize for narrative with his work ‘Vigília’. Juli Martínez Amorós was awarded the Josep Vicent Marqués prize for essay for ‘Un viatge per la història de les paraules valencianes. Un viatge cap a l’autoestima lingüística’. The Eduard Escalante prize for theatre went to Jordi Santasusagna Davins for ‘Sarajevo’, while Begonya Pozo received the Maria Beneyto prize for poetry for ‘Cremen els noms’.
In the Spanish categories, Carlos Sáez Castillo was recognised with the Vicente Blasco Ibáñez prize for narrative for ‘Amos del Borog’. Marta Trinidad Depetris won the Celia Amorós prize for essay with ‘La lengua sin tiempo. Inteligencia artificial y temporalidad de la escritura’. The Max Aub prize for theatre was awarded to Alberto Gálvez Iglesias for ‘De flores y hombres’, and Carlos Asensio Alonso was selected for the Juan Gil-Albert prize for poetry with ‘La lengua astillada’. The comic project ‘La vida inerte’, by Miguel Ballesteros Herraiz and Ángel Abellán Victorio, was chosen for the premi Josep Sanchis Grau.
Participation was notably high, with 1,665 submissions in Spanish, 192 in Valencian, and 109 comic projects. Poetry in Spanish received the most entries, with 708 submissions, followed by narrative in Spanish with 634 entries.
The competition offered a prize of €12,000 for each narrative award, €6,000 for poetry, €8,000 for theatre, and €10,000 for both essay and comic categories. These amounts are subject to applicable tax withholdings and do not constitute an advance on copyright royalties.
Edicions Bromera will publish the narrative, poetry, and theatre titles in Valencian, while Edicions del Bullent will handle the essay in that language. Works in Spanish will be published by Sargantana for narrative, Visor for poetry, Espuela de Plata for theatre, and Renacimiento for essay. Grafito Editorial will manage the comic publications. According to the competition rules, the jury's decision will be published on the municipal website and notified to the winners.
