PEN Català awards the PETIT PEN prize to the Hungarian association Labrisz Leszbikus Egyesület and the international project Tiny Books from Baltic Authors.

PEN Català celebrates 100 years since its birth and looks to the future with the creation of an award in the field of literature aimed at young people. The aim of the award is to recognize the contribution of a European entity, organization or initiative to a freer and more diverse children’s and/or young people’s literature.

The jury, which met online on November 11, 2022, has unanimously decided to award the 2022 Petit PEN award equally to the Hungarian association Labrisz Leszbikus Egyesület and the international project Tiny Books from Baltic Authors.

The jury honoured Labrisz Leszbikus Egyesület for their approach to community work, through which they have grown, evolved, and helped transform culture by accommodating young LGTBIQ+ creators; in this sense, the jury especially values their courage in defending the rights of the LGTBIQ+ community through literature, in a political context of repression and attack on sexual diversity.

The jury has also honoured the Tiny Books from Baltic Authors project for offering an accessible programme of reading promotion to children and youth audiences, with small handmade books that present texts, illustrations, and quality design to introduce reflections on diversity and human rights. Added to this is an awareness of the development of Baltic children’s literature, which grants spaces for its creators to encourage cooperation, with the intention of showing their work to the community and the rest of the world.

The jury would also like to recognize the work carried out by the three finalists: the British organization Pop-Up projects, the Swedish library Punkt 127, and the Silent Books project from IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People).

The jury was formed by Freddy Gonçalves, Magalí Homs, Gemma Rodríguez and Justinas Vancevičius, who abstained from participating in the final deliberation due to his proximity to one of the candidate projects.

FREDDY GONÇALVES

Cultural mediator, researcher, writer, professor, editor and specialist in children’s and youth literature. Creator of the PezLinterna magazine. He has published, among others, the book La nostàlgia del buit, la lectura com a espai de pertinença en l’adolescència [Nostalgia for the void: reading as a space of belonging in adolescence], in which he reflects on his work with youth in different countries.

MAGALÍ HOMS

Designer, producer, and cultural manager. For the last ten years she has directed the Tantàgora association, an organization that for 25 years has been dedicated to the dissemination of oral and written literature primarily for young audiences. She is also director of FLIC, a children’s and youth arts and literature festival, and Xup-Xup, both promoted by Tantàgora. Along with Roser Ros, she has curated various exhibitions.

GEMMA RODRÍGUEZ

Playwright, screenwriter, and cultural manager. She directs PEN Català and currently coordinates the European project Be Part. Grow with Arts and the Writer in Refuge Programme. Her work has been translated into various languages and performed in several different countries. She has been awarded the María Teresa León prize and the Serra d’Or for criticism. She was a founding member of the association of creative performance Projecte Vaca and has presided over the screenwriters’ association of Catalonia and the screenwriters’ Forum of Associations.

JUSTINAS VANCEVICIUS

Justinas Vancevicius is the founder of the reading promotion programme “Children‘s World”, based in Vilnius, Lithuania. The programme implements different national and international projects, including literature festivals, educational programmes for children, book creators, and teachers, and strives to make literature accessible to children from different social groups.