Next Saturday, April 23rd, Book’s Day is celebrated internationally. The book forms an artefact in which people and identities gather together. It collects ways of thinking, being, living, and dying. In its interior of black letters that paint a blank page, the author and the reader reach an agreement on the construction of a world to look at from a new perspective. A world that becomes a way of understanding. The book— vulnerable in its nature, which is threatened with facility by fire, water and various inclemencies— has managed to transcend the limits of history— or what is the same, of time—, it has let us know our past and make a mark for the future. Its format has evolved from paper to digital screens, but its essence remains: it unfolds the voices and silences that may not be heard elsewhere.
It has been shown that reading a book activates the mirror neurons, which allow us to comprehend the people around us, and which affect our empathy capacity. So, books are social gadgets and fully dynamic, they are capable of producing changes (biological, psychological...) in those who read them, and, also, in those who write them.
So, on this day, we are looking forward to reading your voices. Therefore, we have decided to run our first Short Stories Competition.
The rules for the competition are the following:
The short story can be published on an Instagram post or in a tweet/thread on Twitter.
In both scenarios, the publisher's user on the respective network must be mentioned: @MalasCiasLibros (Twitter) https://twitter.com/MalasCiasLibros o @libros_de_las_malas_compañias (Instagram). https://www.instagram.com/libros_de_las_malas_companias/
The hashtag #ConcursoMalasCompañias must be also used
The deadline opens on Monday 18 April and runs until Thursday 28 April. After a reflection day, we will announce the winner on Saturday 30. The election of the winner will be made by a committee formed by the members of the publishing house.
The prize consists of one of the books in our catalogue, which will be chosen by the winner. Likewise, his/her/their short story will be published on the blog of our web, and we will spread it on all our social networks.
Celebrate all the stories that are yet to be told (and yet to be read)
sharing your short story!
Happy Books’ Day!
Teresa Merchan
