David Orlando del Águila Quevedo wins the 2022 Copé Short Story Award

The Qualifying Jury of the XXII Short Story Biennial “Copé 2022 Award”, from a total of 1,960 participating works, selected the work “DÍAS DE PRUEBA ESPERANDO A PARADISE” (“TRIAL DAYS WAITING FOR PARADISE”), with the pseudonym Gavrilo Daria, as the winner of the contest. After the opening of the personal data file, it was revealed that it is the writer David Orlando Del Águila Quevedo, who will win the Copé Oro Trophy and 25 thousand Soles.

Also, the short story “El último sortilégio de Fernando Pessoa”, with the pseudonym Raphael Baldaya, was designated as the winner of the Copé Silver Award. Its author is the writer Christian Elguera Olórtegui, winning the Copé Plata Trophy and 15 thousand Soles. While the Bronze Copé Award was awarded to the story “Tribus urbanas”, with the pseudonym “Mafessoli” and authored by the writer Reynaldo Óscar Santa Cruz Cabrera, who will be awarded the Bronze Copé Trophy and 10,000 soles.

Likewise, fourteen finalist works were awarded who will receive an Honorary Diploma awarded to: "Una locura discreta" with the pseudonym Chica Almodóvar, "Los adobes y la cruz" with the pseudonym Dedalus Yacuruna, "Minerva, versión beta" with the pseudonym Jinkx Monsoon, “El Gran Gatsby en Piura” with the pseudonym Nick Carraway, “Corre, Jimena! ¡Sube!" under the pseudonym Puerto Escondido, “Virginia Woolf no se muere este día” under the pseudonym Emissary, “Mitología privada” under the pseudonym El tygre de Blake, “Héroe” under the pseudonym Cat Jam, “Redentor” under the pseudonym Guille, “Candiles” with the pseudonym C. Auguste Dupin, “Pabellón "M"” with the pseudonym Ulija Brecara, “Naturaleza del sonido” with the pseudonym Vers, “A través de la ventana” with the pseudonym Doral and “37 segundos” with the pseudonym Anatólio.

Regarding the Copé Gold Award of the XXII Short Story Biennial, the qualifying jury states that: "Días de prueba esperando a Paradise" is part of a critical approach to the Anthropocene and questions the role of the human being in the ecosystem. It is a speculative fiction that uses the Amazon world as a setting, which opens the possibility of imagining the future. The fragmentary composition in the form of a diary allows us as readers to fill the gap between each scene. At the narrative level, a reality settles down that leads to an unexpected resolution.

Regarding the Copé Silver Award of the XXII Short Story Biennial, the qualifying jury comments that: “El último sortilégio de Fernando Pessoa” is a story that fictionalizes a true story of the Portuguese writer. The story delves into little-known aspects of Pessoa's life in an imaginative way. In this way the story provides unexpected details about the characters and is told in such a way that it captures the reader's attention.

Regarding the Bronze Copé Award of the XXII Short Story Biennial, the qualifying jury agrees that: “Tribus urbanas” explores spaces of violence and corruption links established between the protagonists: members of the police and the army. Likewise, it uses a fairly descriptive narrative that incorporates the popular language of Peruvian urban groups. It is a subject that little by little is gaining space in the Peruvian literary production.

The winning work and finalists will be published in a single volume by Petroperú under the Ediciones Copé label in 2023 and will be housed in the Company's Virtual Library.

The Qualifying Jury for the 2022 Copé Short Story Award was made up of Miluska Benavides for the Ministry of Culture, Eduardo Hopkins for the Peruvian Academy of Language, Guissela Gonzales Fernández for the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Carla Sagástegui for the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Peru and Rocío Quispe-Agnoli for Petroperú. The selection was made from a total of 1,960 participating works.

The recognition ceremony for the winners and finalists will take place the last week of January 2023, and will be broadcast via the Facebook live of the Petroperú Cultural Center.

Petróleos del Perú and the Qualifying Juries highlight the great call for works in the 2022 edition of the short story contest and the high level of the works presented and selected. Likewise, they thank all the participants for their vocation in literary creation.

About the winners of the XXII Short Story Biennial –2022 Copé Award

David Orlando Del Águila Quevedo (Tarapoto, 1988) is a cartoonist and muralist. He published the collection of poems "Habitado" in 2010. He is the founder of the cultural collective "Arteroide: Biblioteca Móvil" and the collective "Muralización Nacional" against the contamination of electoral propaganda in the streets. Since 2006 he has published satirical cartoons in various print media nationwide.

Christian Elguera (Tingo María, 1987) Visiting Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies at St. Mary's University of San Antonio (Texas, United States). He earned his PhD in Iberian and Latin American Languages and Cultures at The University of Texas at Austin (August 2020). At this same institution, he studied in the Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) program. He is currently finishing his book "Traducciones territoriales: defensoras y defensores de tierras indígenas en Perú y Brasil", which analyzes poems, chronicles, radio programs and drawings produced by Quechua, Munduruku, Yanomami and Ticuna intellectuals and artists with the aim of confronting the territorial dispossession, extermination and ecocide promoted by the governments of Peru and Brazil between the 1960s and 2000s. He has edited the novels of Julián M. del Portillo, a 19th-century Peruvian writer and promoter of liberal colonialism (Ediciones MyL 2021). He is currently part of the editorial team of the magazine Latin American Literature Today as a correspondent for indigenous literature. He has received an honorable mention in the 2020 Copé Short Story Award and was a finalist for the 2022 Juana Goergen Poetry Award.

Reynaldo Santa Cruz (Callao, 1963) His work has earned him various literary awards in Europe and Latin America in competitions such as La Felguera, Lena, Guardo, Novelarte, Visceralia, Copé, El cuento de las mil palabras, Ricardo Palma and the Peruvian-Japanese Association, among others. He has published "La muerte de dios y otras muertes" (1990), "El arte de escribir, introducción a la narratología" (1997), "El evangelio según Santa Cruz" (1998), "Historia de una cucaracha" (2006) and "La magia de las palabras" (2010). He has been selected in national and foreign anthologies. On the academic side, he is a Doctor in Peruvian and Latin American Literature and a Sociologist. He is currently pursuing a Master's degree in creative writing at the University of La Rioja in Spain.