The Anna Lindh Foundation and the International Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), Head of the its Spanish Network announce today the thirty winners of their 2nd edition of "A Sea of Words" short story competition.

The competition aims to encourage the production of short stories that portray the different realities of the Euro-Mediterranean region from the point of view of the young people who live within this region.

"Restoring trust, dialogue and reconciliation in situations of crisis and conflicts" is this year's theme for the competition, which has been defined in line with the objectives of the "Restore Trust, Rebuild Bridges" Call for Action, launched by the Anna Lindh Foundation and the UN Alliance of Civilisations.

This year a total number of 152 candidates participated in the competition among which 30 winners have been selected by an international jury headed by the Italian academic and translator, Elisabetta Baruti and consisting of Lebanese novelist Najwa Barakat, Catalan novelist Gemma Lienas, Moroccan writer and civil activist Jamila Hassoune and Elise Blot, the winner of last year's "Sea of Words" competition.

The winners will all be invited to attend the bestowal ceremony in Barcelona on the 25th of September 2009. During the bestowal ceremony, three winners will be chosen among the finalists; each of the three winners will receive a computer as his/her prize.

Following the bestowal ceremony, the winners will attend a number of cultural activities, meetings and exchanges in Barcelona and Toledo to take place from 26 to 28 September 2009.

To download the full list of winners, log on to http://www.iemed.org/seaofwords/assets/guanyadors09.pdf