The bookmark
The latest recognition received was the Bibliodiversity Award 2023. It was awarded by the Small Publishers' Commission (CPE) of the Madrid Publishers' Association in a more than appropriate setting: the Book Fair.
In all the awards there is a jury that meets, debates and makes its decision, and this one was not going to be any different. Following the decision, the philologist and journalist David Felipe Arranz won the award for "his fierce defence and promotion of the work of hundreds of small publishers, making visible not only their books, but also interviewing and publicising the names behind this profession, which is worthy of social recognition".
It is true that time is what it is, that the day lasts 24 hours and that it is the same for everyone, but it is also true that we do not know how to organise it in the same way. Who hasn't wondered at some point what a certain person does to be able to get to everything? That is David Felipe Arranz, a restless soul who manages time with intelligence and ingenuity; who distributes it like those enviable cupboards and drawers where everything is placed to perfection; who caresses and distributes it with great common sense; who squanders it with effectiveness and enjoyment in what he likes most: the dissemination of culture in many of its facets.
There are no blank spaces in his unstoppable and provocative mind, in his passion for literature, in his craze for cinema, in his enjoyment of theatre, in his concern for society, in his reflections and political criticism... Arranz is a seeker of small treasures that he turns into great ones, like so many works published in those small publishing houses that sail by boat on a rough sea and that now thank him for the work he has done. Because he gives them a voice in this immensity, he reaches out to authors and publishers and accompanies them on their journey.
The bookmark is the title of his radio programme. A design of his own that bears his stamp, his commitment, his know-how and the enormous doors on which those words of welcome are felt without being read. Next September it will be 23 years, more than two decades in which the journalist has talked to us about books, recited poems, interviewed hundreds of writers, poets, artists... A dream fulfilled: to bring closer the cultural world for which he does so much. Now, his Marcapasos, which has been on several radio stations, can be heard on Radio Intereconomía. A programme that already in 2018 received the Silver Antenna.
This restless character also teaches at the Carlos III University, talks about cinema in Secuencias de 24 Horas, writes in the Norte de Castilla in his native Valladolid, directs or participates in courses and seminars, organises gatherings, presents books, writes them... In 2020, he received the Sial Pygmalion Award for Thought and Essay for his work España sin resolver. Crónicas de la postransición (2010-2020). It is clear that he knows how to mark time in his pages.