On Tuesday he announced the winner of the Academy 111 annual award. The academy is designated as a “meeting point of literature amateurs”, with 218 members currently, and 123 have participated in this year’s prize vote. It was initially selected from seven works. In addition to the novels of Bidegain and Jai, Alaska of Suárez Castle, Yohane Amantegi Key Bone, Water jumping from Juan Kruz Igerabide, Retornos de Miren Agur Meabe and Rumbo de Josebe Blanco. I have been made pastors by sheep, the latter published by ARGIA. At the vote in the final the works of Jaio and Bidegain, which he has won. “The competition between the two works has been very close until the last moment,” explains the academy in the award communication note.

"An interesting and current story"

This is the Academy 11’s critique of Bidegain’s Bichta éder book: “Eneko Bidegain has reversed the multi-strand plot in this novel. A history of many curves. A story with multiple characters and themes. A political thriller in which the speculation of land and construction, tourism and agriculture, the Basque and the majority language, the dirty wars and business of Algeria, ETA and the state crimes, Lapurdi and the old Navarre, the elderly and the subalternos, and the two protagonists turn Altzugaraia in their fight against turning the palace into a speculative tourism project. An interesting and current story, in which the author masterfully delves into the end of the story, unleashing the reader’s curiosity.”

"The facts that appear are fictional, but similar things have actually happened. This is a work of documentation," said Bidegain himself to Nora Alberbide in this interview published on the academy’s own website.

This year’s edition is the 28th edition of the Academy 111 Prize. It was first given in 1996. 1996 won then Elgeta from Joxean Agirre, and last year Azken etxea from Arantxa Urretabizkaia announced that the Bidegain award ceremony will be held in early June.