The Asturian writer Mónica Rodríguez has been awarded the 2024 National Prize for Children’s and Young People’s Literature for Umiko (Diego Pun Ediciones), illustrated by Daniel Piquera Fisk. The prize, awarded by the Ministry of Culture, is endowed with 30,000 euros. The jury has highlighted Umiko for “the sound, the mastery of the registers and the beauty of the story in this particular universe brilliantly constructed through exhaustive research and documentation. For its ability to connect with the audience it is aimed at and to which it welcomes and captivates from the beginning,” in a statement issued by Culture.
“The minister (Ernest Urtasun) called me to tell me. I almost fell out of my chair. I almost burst into tears,” Mónica Rodríguez laughs on the phone. And she celebrates a peculiar journey that, after being born in Oviedo in 1969, took her first to a sector that a priori seemed quite remote: she has a degree in Physics, with a master’s degree in Nuclear Energy. For 15 years she worked at the Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (Ciemat), which she left in 2009 to focus on writing, after publishing her first children’s book in 2003. “On October 1st it will be 15 years since I left Ciemat. If they had told me that one day I would win this award, it would have exceeded all my expectations,” confesses the author.
He has published more than 60 books and has received, among others, the Cervantes Chico Award for children’s and young adult literature for his career in 2018, the Edebé Award for children’s literature and the Barco de Vapor in 2023. And, now, the National Award for Umiko. The jury underlines the “the exceptional narrative quality that houses an original, evocative and dynamic story with the scent of the sea.” And he recognizes “Rodríguez’s literary ability to give soul to her work through her characters, with clear intergenerational references between women, and for the rich personality of her protagonist, who must discover herself at the moment in life when existential concerns usually surface.” “Writer and illustrator have achieved a perfect assembly —in a book that is also an exquisite object— to show us the Japanese breath that comes from Umiko, an oceanic world inhabited by ama, women who practice the traditional profession of divers,” the statement continued.
Umiko is an illustrated novel for young people, centred on a young woman, “daughter and granddaughter of Japanese divers, a traditional profession that is passed down from mothers to daughters”, as the synopsis on the publisher’s website summarises. “Like her friends, she does not want to follow tradition, spending long hours in the icy waters of the ocean and running the dangers of the seabed. Despite this, she feels an irresistible attraction to the underwater world, which is accentuated when she meets the lighthouse keeper’s nephew, Sasuke, a teenager from Tokyo, with whom she experiences her first love. This love and the ocean are intertwined with the story of her ancestor Ishi, one of the best divers, who disappeared at sea shortly after World War II. The old diver Kairi, her grandmother Chinami and the rest of the divers will gradually reveal to her the secrets of the sacred and magical world of female divers”, adds the synopsis.
Rodríguez says that the idea for the work came from the illustrator, who introduced her to the world of Japanese divers, which fascinated her. They then translated it together into a book. “We wanted to do something different, in two languages, narrative and illustration,” adds the author. It may therefore be surprising that the National Prize only recognises Rodríguez. “It will recognise a work written in this literary genre by a Spanish author, written in any of the official Spanish languages published in Spain in its first edition, between 1 January and 31 December 2023, which has met the legal requirements established for its dissemination,” reads the rules of the award. Hence, only the writer is awarded, despite the fact that illustration has a very prominent relevance in the field of literature. Umiko.
Both creators sign the cover and the publisher itself considers them “co-authors” of the work. “It is a work in half and the prize is for both of them. It is annoying that he does not get it too. Even the story is narrated in both languages. We knew that we had done something at least different. We have to thank the publisher for their trust, who told us: ‘Whatever you want, however you want’. And to Yoshi Hioki, a Japanese narrator who helped us to approach a story about his country,” says Rodríguez. “We tried a novel formula of narration, one by Monica and another visual one that is mine, written with comics and drawings… without any text. The important thing is to be grateful for the trust we put in us. Umikothe enjoyment of the process and the result of two styles and two ways of narrating, text and comic, a unique formula that has worked and has been understood,” says Daniel Piquera Fisk. In any case, the Culture Ministry’s statement does not even mention the name of the cartoonist. Although the truth is that the Ministry also awards a National Illustration Prize.
The National Prize for Children and Young People’s Literature last year recognized Patxi Zubizarreta, joining a long list of award winners, including Rafael Salmerón, Beatriz Giménez de Ory, Raimon Portell i Rifà, Juan Kruz Igerabide and Ledicia Costas, among others. And, in addition, it seeks to reinforce the prestige of a sector that is sometimes questioned as easy literature, or second-rate. Rodríguez answers: “Whoever discredits it does not know it.” To break down prejudices, you can start by reading Umiko.
Monica Rodriguez