The International Jury of the III Edition of the International Flash Fiction Competition Cesar Egido Serrano Foundation, Museum of Words, has finally decided
Jury´s final decision
The International Jury of the III Edition of the International Flash Fiction Competition Cesar Egido Serrano Foundation, Museum of Words, composed by:
His Excellency, Ambassador of France Mr. Jérôme Bonnafont
His Excellency, Ambassador of Italia Mr. Pietro Sebastiani
His Excellency Ambassador of Russia Mr. Dmitry Sokolov
His Excellency Ambassador of Japan Mr. Satoru Satoh
His Excellency, Ambassador of Brasil Mr. Paulo Cesar de Oliveira Campos
His Excellency Ambassador of Austria Mr. Rudolf Lennkh
Her Excellency Ambassador of Sweden Mrs. Cecilia Julin
His Excellency Ambassador of Uruguay Mr. Francisco Bustillo Bonaso
His Excellency Ambassador of Greece Mr. Franciscos Verros
His Excellency Ambassador of Honduras Mr. Norman García Paz
His Excellency Ambassador of Portugal Mr. Tadeu Soares
Her Excellency Ambassador of Ecuador, Mrs. Aminta Buenaño Rugel
His Excellency Ambassador of Jordan Mr. Ghassan Almajali
His Excellency Ambassador of Oman Mr. Hilal Bin Marhoon salim Al Maamari
His Excellency, Ambassador of Monaco Mr. Patrick Van klaveren
His Excellency Ambassador of Croacia Mr. Neven Pelicaric´
His Excellency Ambassador of Slovakia Mr. Jan Skoda
His Excellency Ambassador of Bulgaria Mr. Kostadin Kodchabachev
His Excellency Ambassador of Cyprus Mr. Antonis Toumazis
His Excellency Ambassador of the Netherlands Mr. Cornelis Van Rij
His Excellency Mr. Marcial Marín Hellín, Minister of Education, Culture and Sports of Castilla la Mancha´s region.
His Excellency Mr. Fernando Jou, Castilla la Mancha´s Government Delegate.
Once read the 36 finalists stories, which were previously selected, from among the 22.571 received from 119 countries, by a technical jury, composed of 20 professors and literature teachers, has issued their votes, from which the following prizes are awarded:
First Prize with $20,000, awarded to Mr. Armando Macchia, from Argentina, for the story "The Sniper".
Runner up Prize with $2,000, in English language category, granted to Mr. Daniel Moreau, from Chicago, United States, for the story "The Old Patient".
Runner up Prize with $2,000, in Arabic language, granted to Mr. Tarek Emam, from Cairo, Egypt, for the story "One eye".
Runner up Prize with $2,000, in Hebrew language, awarded to Yinon Tal, native of Israel, for the story 'Freedom'.
The Cesar Egido Serrano Foundation - Museum of Words, once ratified the agreement of the Jury, and communicated this decision to the winner, as well as the finalists, giving faith of it and communicating it also to the media.
We enclose the winning stories.
Winning story
The Sniper
Every day, while waiting for the bus, a child pointed at me from a balcony with his finger, and pulled the trigger as a rite his imaginary gun, screaming at me “bang, bang!” One day, just to keep the routine play, I also pointed at him with my finger, yelling "bang, bang!” The child fell to the street like struck down. I ran to him, and saw that he half opened his eyes and looked at me stunned. Desperate I said "but I just repeated the same as you did to me". He responded then sorrowful: "Yes Sir, but I was not shooting to kill".
Runner up Prize in English language
The old patient told me never to open the closet. "There's a tiger in there and if you do it'll devour us both," he said. As an orderly, part of my job is to humor our patients so I abided by the old man's wishes. When he died, months later, I bagged what meager possessions he had. The closet, though, I left alone. I too had imagined the tiger's stripes, razor teeth, wire-like whiskers and luminescent eyes. I pictured it pacing back and forth inside the closet waiting to pounce on the first person foolish enough to open it.
Runner up prize in Arab language
An Eye
Once, I found an eye thrown out in one of the streets, a real one. Even when I leaned and grabbed it gently I touched its tears. I was still able to see the eye certainly different from the sincere eyes scattered on the sidewalks of Cairo. I took it, carefully as not to burst it, looking for someone to give it to. I was looking at it sideways, and saw it contemplating the defeated city, faceless looking with it, without a neighbour who accompanied it to see with it. At the end – my palm got tired, attentive and charged with it - I squeezed it violently, until I felt the world was darkened before it. On this day especially, I met many people who lost everything except their eyes, and only at home, I remembered that one day, I lost an eye.
Runner up prize in Hebrew language
FREEDOM
I had searched the world asking a question: what is freedom, I asked, yet I received no answer.
I left my home and went for a sail. I asked the fishes of the sea what is freedom, but mere silence was heard.
I crossed continents and waded through thick forests, trying to find intelligent creatures, but the dwellers of the forests to this task were unequal.
I wandered inside caves in the desert. I asked mammals, fowls and insects, I questioned large reptiles and lizards. They claimed it was too difficult question to answer.
I turned to magnificent and desolate kingdoms. I asked kings and commoners; wealthy and indigent; plunderers and restorers – no one gave me an answer.
Only when I went back home then I realized: freedom lies in the quest for it, and ends where people have stopped asking about it.
