Belén Ovalle wins the literary contest of the Botillo Festival with “A long way”.

The ponferradina Belén Ovalle Cascallana, has been chosen winner of the Literary Contest of the National Festival of Exaltation of the Botillo de Bembibre with the work entitled “A long way”.

The author, a health technician by profession, does not hide her passion for literature. She takes advantage of her time for training in the workshops and storytelling courses of Esther Folgueral and Manuel Cuenya.

He has participated in several literary contests but his artistic facet goes beyond, receiving last December a second prize in the category of Plastic Arts of the Cultural Contests of the Casa de León in A Coruña.

“Un largo camino” tells the story of an unrequited love, the search for a daughter she had to give up and a letter that seeks to redeem her torture. It is set in different scenarios, the main ones being an almost uninhabited village in the Montes Aquilianos, and the neighborhood of Socuello, in Bembibre.

In this story there is no lack of botillo, the star dish that the protagonist cooks like no one else in an exquisite way every Thursday in her own house of meals from mid-October until the end of the winter.

Frustrated love, guilt, social shame, stigmas and work in a mine in Bierzo Alto, are some of the elements of this story that the jury has chosen as the winner of the literary contest of the Botillo Festival.

Given its geographical proximity, Belén Ovalle has expressed her intention to participate in the event to be held on February 22 at the Manuel Marqués Patarita pavilion.

The prize for the winning story is 1,000 euros.