GFDD/Funglode Awards Commemorate 10th Anniversary in 2016 Ceremony

The ceremony doubled as a book launch for the collection Nueve voces contando hasta diez, featuring the 9 first-prize stories from the Awards’ 10 years of history.

On Friday, March 24, in a ceremony led by president of GFDD/Funglode, Dr. Leonel Fernández, presented the 2016 Funglode/GFDD Awards, organized by the Center for Culture Studies and Editorial Funglode. The event marked the 10th anniversary of the Awards, aimed at
incentivizing art and culture in the Dominican Republic.

The celebration was accompanied by the launch of the book Nueve voces contando hasta diez, which brings together the nine first-prize-winning stories selected throughout the 10 years of the Awards’ history so far. The book includes a prologue by José Rafael Lantigua, director of the Center for Culture Studies, and its cover displays the first-place photo from the Color category in
Funglode’s 2016 Abelardo Rodríguez Urdaneta Photography Prize, entitled Arcoiris urbano, by Pedro Farías Nardi.

The band “Batuta by Pablo Polanco” opened the ceremony. After the awards a film was screened to commemorate the first nine awards presentation events.

Alongside former Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernández, the awards were presented by Funglode executive director Marco Herrera and Awards director Catherine Florentino.

Nan Chevalier, winner of the Pedro Mir Poetry Prize, offered thanks on behalf of the winners.

The book Nueve voces contando hasta diez was presented by Editorial Funglode director Noris Eusebio.

She called for applause for the
writers whose winning stories were collected in the anthology: Johanna Díaz López (2007), Gerhard Viktor Schmidt Haberl (2008), Juan Freddy Armando (2009), Fanny Vargas (2010), Nan Chevalier (2011), Fernando Berroa (2012), Félix Gerónimo (2013), Vladimir Tatis (2014), and Leo Silverio (2015).

The Funglode/GFDD Awards were inaugurated in 2006 in categories that pay homage to figures who have left a legacy in Dominican arts and culture: the Juan Bosch Story Prize, the Pedro
Mir Poetry Prize, the Pedro Francisco Bonó Essay Prize, the Federico García Godoy Novel Prize, the Rafael Herrera Journalism Prize, the Max Pou Documentary Prize, and the Alejandro Rodríguez Urdaneta Photography Prize.

2016 Edition
The 2016 edition included awards in the categories of Photography, Novel, Essay, Poetry, and Journalism. A total of 104 submissions were received: 14 in poetry, 7 in essays, 67 photography displays, 5 novels, and
11 pieces of reportage. The first-, second-, and third-place winners in most categories will receive cash prizes of between RD$30,000.00 (~US$630) and RD$150,000.00 (~US$3,180).

Winners
Rafael Herrera Journalism Prize
First place: To the series “Paseo cultural”, by Mayra Pérez Castillo, from the newspaper Listín Diario.

Second place: To the series “Era de Trujillo a 55 años”, by Héctor Francisco Minaya Rosario, from the  newspaper El Nacional.
Third place: To the series of reports “Las Emergencias en emergencia”, by Doris Pantaleón, from Listín Diario.

Honorable mention:
Series of reports on hospitals in the South, by Ana Batista Mateo, from the newspaper Diario Libre
Series “Aislados para salvarse”, by Adriana Peguero, from Listín Diario
“El Legado de Salomé”, by Carmen Teresa Guzmán, from Listín Diario

Abelardo Rodríguez Urdaneta Photography
Prize
Color category:
First place: “Arcoíris urbano”, by Pedro Farías Nardi.

Finalist:
“Dreams”, by David Soto Matos.

Black and white category:
First
place: “No quiero foto”, by Francisco Fortunato.

Finalist:
“Nuevas minas”, by Nehemías Alvino Castro.

Digital creative category
First place: “Cero libertad de expresión”, by Danisel Cuesto.

Finalist:
“Plegaria 2.0”, by Nehemías Alvino Castro.

Audience award:
“Mirada”, by Denny Pérez Matos.

Pedro Francisco Bonó Essay Prize
Desierto

Federico García Godoy Novel Prize
“Nada humano me es ajeno”, by Hyden Carrón Namnún.

Pedro Mir Poetry Prize
“Presas de la inmediatez”, by Nan Chevalier.

The juries in each category include:
Pedro Mir Poetry Prize: José Frank Rosario (USA), Danilo Manera (Italy), and José Acosta (USA).
Pedro Francisco Bonó Essay Prize: Franklin Gutiérrez (USA), Soledad Alvarez (Dominican Republic), and Luis Beiro Alvarez (Cuba-Dominican Republic).
Abelardo
Rodríguez Urdaneta Photography Prize: Carlos Acero Ruiz, Mayra Johnson, and Domingo Batista.
Rafael Herrera Journalism Prize: Rafael Molina Morillo, Mario Rivadulla, and José Báez Guerrero.

Federico García Godoy Novel Prize: Eugenio García Cuevas (USA), Emilia Pereyra (Dominican Republic), and Pedro Antonio Valdez (Dominican Republic).