Mario Ruiz-Tagle, CEO of Iberdrola España, presents the Zenda Bookshop Award to Letras Corsarias, a cultural landmark in Salamanca
- Iberdrola España sponsors the Zenda Awards for the second consecutive year in line with its long-standing support for Zenda and its commitment to culture and new digital trends
- Accompanied by novelist Eva García Sáenz de Urturi, the award was presented at a ceremony presided over by Her Majesty Queen Letizia
- The award highlights the role of Salamanca's bookshops in the cultural revitalisation of Castile and León and reading in digital environments
Mario Ruiz-Tagle, CEO of Iberdrola España, together with novelist Eva García Sáenz de Urturi presented the Zenda Bookshop Award to Letras Corsarias, recognised for ‘being a true cultural benchmark in Salamanca and creating a unique space for intellectual exchange and excitement about reading’. The award was presented last night during the 2024–2025 Zenda Awards ceremony held at the Royal Tapestry Factory and presided over by Her Majesty Queen Letizia.
Iberdrola España is sponsoring the Zenda Awards for the second consecutive year, reinforcing its long-standing support for it and reaffirming its commitment to culture and new digital trends.
Rafa Arias, founder and director of Letras Corsarias, accepted the award ‘enthusiastically’, accompanied by Mercedes Brugarolas and María Rojo, representing the reading community that drives the project: ‘In Salamanca, we feel like we’re part of a network of bookshops spread throughout the country that works, often quietly, to create a community around books, reading and conversation.’
‘Supporting Zenda and recognising a bookshop like Letras Corsarias, which brings together the reading community and critical thinking, reflects Iberdrola's commitment, since its inception 125 years ago, to an accessible, pluralistic culture that is now connected to the digital world’, said Ruiz-Tagle.
The gala brought together leading authors, representatives from the publishing industry and figures from the cultural and political world. This year, the Zenda Award went to Enrique Vila-Matas. The jury also recognised, among others, Paco Cerdà (Fiction), Chantal Maillard (Poetry), Anna Caballé (Essay), Najat El Hachmi (Children and Young Adult), Esther L. Calderón (Debut Work), Libros del Asteroide (Publishing House), José María Micó (Translation) and eBiblio (Innovation). Manuel Ángel Cuenca López was also awarded the Zenda-Edhasa Special Prize.
A shared commitment to reading and digital culture
The collaboration between Zenda —an independent book and reader platform founded in April 2016 by Arturo Pérez-Reverte— and Iberdrola España has been structured around three areas since 2016: monthly short story competitions, which have been very well received on social media; the Iberdrola reading forum on the Zenda website, and the co-publication of eight titles: Bajo dos banderas (Under Two Flags, 2018), Hombres (y algunas mujeres) (Men (and Some Women), 2019), Heroínas (Heroines, 2020), 2030 (2021), Historias del camino (Stories from the Road, 2022), Europa, ¿otoño o primavera? (Europe, Autumn or Spring? 2023), Las luces de la memoria (The Lights of Memory, 2023) and Cartas a una reina (Letters to a Queen, 2024).
For Salamanca and Castile and León, the Zenda Prize for Letters Corsarias highlights the dynamic role of its bookshops and book clubs, as well as the value of the cultural ecosystem that connects readers, authors and publishers in the region.
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