The subdelegate of the Government in Pontevedra, Abel Losada, today received Teresa Zataraín, director of the publishing house Creotz, who has just received the prize of the Ministry of Culture for the best published books in 2023 for her work BESTIARIUM, by the Cuban writer Dulce María Loynaz and the illustrator Mo Gutiérrez Serna. The award is a recognition of the quality of its editorial work.
BESTIARIUM went on the market in March 2023, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of Loynaz’s last trip to Spain to collect the Cervantes Prize. It is therefore a book tribute to the first Ibero-American woman to receive the highest award of Hispanic letters. Losada defined BESTIARIUM as “a masterpiece of the ‘book-object’ to enjoy and to collect”.
The Excellence in Book Publishing Award was created by the Ministry of Culture in 1981 and is the highest distinction in this field. Its objective is to value quality editing and stimulate the creation of books and works. This year, the jury had to choose 15 works out of a total of 184 received in five different categories, all of which were published in 2023. BESTIARIUM has won the third prize in the category of children's and youth books. It was the first time that Creotz presented a proposal to the contest.
A courageous and feminist editorial bet
The Viguese publisher Creotz is an independent label based in Vigo born a decade ago and growing calmly. “We seek to consolidate our trajectory, also to distinguish ourselves, with quality proposals,” says Teresa Zataraín. Abel Losada stressed that this recognition will make the editorial “accelerate”. She also applauded her commitment to promoting pioneering writers, especially of the 20th century, little known and even unpublished. “This courageous and feminist literary proposal must be highly valued in order to rescue from oblivion women whose texts have not reached the general public.”
Teresa Zataraín explained that BESTIARIUM, despite having won the prize in the category of children's and youth books, is an illustrated book without age: by content and design, it is able to capture equally the attention of an adult lover of premium editions as well as the younger reader. Its author, the Cuban writer and prize winner Cervantes Dulce María Loynaz (Havana 1902-1997), wrote a series of poems about animals still being a student, fresh verses of youth, ironic and challenging, full of light and incipient talent, which the artist Mo Gutiérrez Serna has illustrated for Creotz. For this edition, the editorial has also counted on the graphic designer Cristina Vergara.
The book has a dimension of 18 X 25 cm, 56 interior pages in color and cover in hard cover printed with two inks, with smooth blue background and large printed letters. Each poem carries an illustration of vivid colors, all printed on recycled offset paper in cream tone, with texture and body. At all times, the design seeks the uniqueness of the proposal, which pursues a 100% ecological book, where even the usual plastic laminate that protects most hardcover books on the market has been dispensed with. Inside, the international FSC seal, which certifies respect for the environment throughout the entire editing process, is well visible. The typography, a Mambow on the cover, casual and with a vintage touch, is printed in hard-clad black letters printed in an impeccable way. It is the typography that is the only element of the cover. The guards, for their part, have been illustrated in tones of transition towards the explosion of color in the interior. Zataraín defined BESTIARIUM as “an experience of reading and looking, but also of smelling and touching”. The printing was done by Graphics Anduriña, by Poio.