Fernando Arrabal never picks up the phone. Only if it’s your doctor. That’s what he says. So it was through email that he found out—how else? — who had been recognized with the Zenda Honor Prize 2023-2024, an award sponsored by the literary magazine created by Aturo Pérez-Reverte, and with which the jury wanted to recognize his career as a creator. “He displays an intense work that goes from theater to cinema, from aphorism to poetry, from narrative to epistolary genre, from painting to performance,” reflected the minutes after the deliberation.—At this point, what do you say to you the prizes? This one in particular, what do you think?—Surprise and elation, especially at Zenda’s Honor Award, and in general jubilation, rejoicing, delight, gloating, satisfaction, and even laughter and hilarity; but the brilliant Don José López (Tirso de Molina) could have said in Almazán in 1647: “…all the former scofflaws have fallen dandruff.” Writer, artist, opera director, avant-garde and iconoclastic filmmaker, Fernando Arrabal reaches his 92nd birthday with vigor and lucidity. Faithful to the promise—and according to him thanks to Pan, who has given him enough life—Arrabal has traveled from Paris (“diestrierrolandia”), the city where he has lived since 1955, to Madrid to receive this award. The occasion is more than pertinent to interview him, although in his case the eroticism of the questionnaire with which Arrabal unleashes an exquisite corpse in question-answer format actually applies. Everything finished off, yes, with lyrical flashes more similar to a verse than a headline.HeterodoxiaFernando Arrabal was born in Melilla, in 1932. He learned to read and write in Ciudad Rodrigo. At just ten years old he won the National Award for “gifted.” The mysterious disappearance of his father, sentenced to death and then escaped, marked his childhood and also his work. He is the author of thirteen novels, books of poetry, several texts for theater and essays, among which his books on chess stand out. His novel ‘The Tower Wounded by Lightning’ won the Nadal Prize in 1984 and ‘The Dudous Light of Day’ (1994) won the XI Espasa Essay Prize. Fernando Arrabal’s dramaturgy is influenced by Paris. There he met André Breton. In 1963, he created the Panic Movement, alluding to the Greek god Pan, together with the artists Roland Topor and Alejandro Jodorowski. In 1967 he was imprisoned by the Franco government and later released. A prolific author, his dramatic pieces are part of the theater of the absurd. His taste for controversy and his talent for overshadowing debates both then and now distinguish him as an iconoclast. Since 2025, he has been a knight of the Legion of Honor of the French Republic. Related News ‘Letters to a Queen’ (Zenda, 2024) standard Yes From Reverte to Rufián: thirty letters for the Princess of Asturias Karina Sainz Borgo—He was the only Spanish intellectual who did not return from exile. If you had done so, do you think you would have gone to Paris again?—As for all beings in my case (including Picasso), our fervor for our origins accompanies our anointing for our work and mission; Ezra Pound broke his silence in 1967 to tell Pier Paolo Pasolini: “… I do not lock myself in an ivory tower but in a fort.”—He was imprisoned by Franco’s regime (and also a knight of the Legion of Honor, what a leap ) What is your opinion about this resurgence of Franco’s figure in the official discourse?—In prison I met people who would have deserved legions of honor; I don’t like to repeat what I usually remember: that Milan Kundera told me in the novel workshop in 2022: «… they hide their deep ‘gili…ez’ with the garb of political commitment»; The psychiatrist Carl Gustave Jung said in Küsnach in 1960, as if he lived in today’s Madrid?, «…historically dreams announced the future; Today they reveal to us our own (hidden) past. —Who was more authoritarian: Breton or Beckett?—Beckett or Breton, like Topor, Kundera, Marcel Duchamp, Cioran, Ionesco, Andy Warhol…etc. They were not imperious, despotic, despotic, dominant, arbitrary, imperative, abusive, unjust…; she almost deserves, ‘chère Karina’, a spanking [¡mil perdones!] for your question? …; the great blasphemer of Sainte-Lucie told me in Castries: “whether in Creole Saint-Lucie or in English, I blaspheme only … nothingness.” —If you could choose your best play, which of them would you choose?—My crier: my biography, which destiny chose especially? to do among other wonders? (with a hint of tragedy), of an eternally chronically ill nonagenarian?; Dora Maar, compromising? Picasso’s friend, told me in Paris-Center: “…there were painters from their land who locked themselves in the dark believing that no one would see them.”—Does Spanish culture in the 21st century improve in any way or is it different from the 20th century? ? Has it inaugurated new conflicts or recycled them?—Only today in Silicon Valley, after the arrival of AI, do ultra-wokes talk “about this and that”; the hilarious David Lodge confessed to me: “we deaf people talk very loudly like the fisherman when he catches a fish with his rod.” Arrabal, in his element. TANIA SIERA «The jury and the winners will make them a reference»It is its first edition. These are awards that recognize literary and editorial work and the promotion of reading in our language. They are made up of ten categories and an honorary award. The winners (writers, editors or booksellers) correspond to the editorial year between August 2023 and July 2024. In addition to the honorary distinction to Fernando Arrabal, other names join the prestigious list of winners: from the journalist and writer Leila Guerriero (Zenda Narrative Award) for his book ‘The Call’, published by Anagrama, to Jesús García Sánchez, director of the Visor publishing house, a label that won the Zenda Editorial Award 2023-2024.The award ceremony, which will be held this Tuesday, January 14 in Madrid, will bring together representatives of the Spanish publishing industry and personalities from the cultural and political world. As explained by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, founder of Zenda, these awards “arise to recognize the effort and talent of writers, booksellers and editors (…) We intend that both the high quality of the jury and the fairness with the winners make these awards in a reference. The jury is made up of Guillermo Altares, Nuria Azancot, Laura Barrachina, Pepa Blanes, Jesús García Calero, Antonio Lucas, Alberto Olmos, Cristina Rivera Garza, Sergio Vila-Sanjuán and Santos Sanz Villanueva, in addition to Leandro Pérez and Álvaro Colomer (secretary) , both representing Zenda magazine.
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