Gabriele Burgio and Mario Vargas Llosa Kurt Ebbers, Wesel Niederrhein, 1957 MARIO VARGAS LLOSA NH SHORT STORY AWARD NH HOTELES SUPPORTS ART AND CULTURE In June 2004 NH Hoteles and the writer Mario Vargas Llosa signed a collaboration agreement at the Casino de Madrid, whereby the writer will lend his name to this literary award as of the ninth edition. This is the most important short story award in the Spanish language and with the highest number of entrants: almost 4,000 short stories in each edition. In the last 8 competitions, over 10,000 authors participated from 29 countries including Spain, England, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Bolivia and the USA. NH Hoteles is very proud to have the endorsement of this prestigious writer in supporting short story writers, culture, initiative and novelty in the literary field. The chain thus offers its customers quality literature and fosters literary creation and reading as a pastime. Award-winning short story publications are now available in three languages: English, Spanish and German. Award-winning pieces are published and distributed in the hotels and are available free of charge in guest rooms. NH Hoteles has published a total of almost two and a half million copies since 1996. Books have been distributed in Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Mexico and Uruguay. 59 NH HOTELES AND CULTURE 11 NH Hoteles strengthens its commitment to culture and art and once again organises the Short Story Awards, which will be known as the Mario Vargas Llosa NH Short Story Award from this year on. Likewise, NH Hoteles continues to promote art with its travelling collection of Stock Art pictures

60 Ninth Mario Vargas Llosa NH Short Story Awards NINTH AWARDS CEREMONY In March 2005, the ninth Mario Vargas Llosa NH Short Story Awards ceremony was held at the Casino de Madrid and was attended for the first time by the prestigious writer. On this occasion, the jury, presided by Gabriele Burgio, was comprised of Carmen Posadas, Juan Luis Cebrián, Javier Tomeo, José Romera Castillo and José Luis Martín Nogales. The professors of English literature, Teresa Gilbert and Fernando Galván, were the judges in the best original English short story category. Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriele Burgio presented the awards where Mercedes Abad won the award for the best book of short stories published in 2004 for her work “Amigos y Fantasmas”, which won €10,000 in prize money. On the other hand, Leonese writer César Gavela’s “Libro de cuentos pequeños” won €20,000 in the best original short story in Spanish category and the story titled “Babel” by writer Ignacio Ferrando (Asturias) won €10,000 in the best independent short story category. Argentinean writer Jorge Torres Zavaleta’s “The Night of the Silver Cross” was the winner in the best English short story category and won €10,000. The following short stories were finalists, each winning €2,000: “Hoy tampoco te lo vas a creer”, Laura by author Manual Francisco Rodríguez; “Belenes” by Eloy Serrano; “No le mandes flores a tu madre” by Dionisio Martínez and stories by two Argentinean writers, “El l Ching” y “El hombre de los papeles” by Guillermo Martínez, and “Pollito Pimentón” by Patricia Suárez.

61 NH Amistad - Córdoba (Spain) NH Liberdade - Lisbon (Portugal) NH STOCK COLLECTION STOCK ART ENDS ITS EXHIBITION TOUR IN GERMANY “NH Stock Art” is an innovative proposition, unprecedented in the hotel industry and which reflects the creative tendencies of the 1980s and 90s. Created in 1998, it is a collection of 50 works of art chosen from among the 3,000 pieces that comprise the chain’s art collection and which decorate hotel communal areas for customers’ enjoyment. The “NH Stock Art” is a travelling collection that visits hotels in different cities with exhibitions open to the public. Up until 2003, the collection had been on display in different Spanish cities including A Coruña, Valladolid, Cuenca, Valencia, Murcia, Huelva, Seville and Cornellá, among others. NH Stock Art went international in 2004: in addition to Germany, it travelled to the Netherlands where it was exhibited in Amsterdam, Maastricht and Rotterdam, demonstrating the company’s commitment to transferring its style to all countries where it operates. In 2004, NH Stock Art, NH Hoteles’ travelling art collection, was exhibited in Berlin and Frankfurt.

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