On the metro or on the bus one can also write. In fact, these means of transport have inspired children and adults to participate in the 19th Short Story Contest that Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) organizes. This year the contest has registered 1,556 participating stories, a fact that represents a 57% growth compared to the last edition in 2024 —since in 2025 a special edition was held dedicated to commemorating the centenary of the Barcelona metro—.
The auditorium of the Jaume Fuster library, located in the Gràcia neighborhood of Barcelona, hosted last week the awards ceremony for the winners of the four categories of the contest (Free Story, TweetStory, School Story and TMB Personal Story). The section School Story, where children and young people between 8 and 17 years old participate, has grown notably, reaching 450 texts, about fifty more than last year and triple that of the previous edition. This year, 79 different educational centers have participated.
All the stories had to have TMB's public transport as their common thread. The CEO of TMB and president of the jury, Xavier Flores, highlighted the high narrative quality of the participating stories and emphasized “the increase in the participation of schools and their students, reaching this year close to eighty different educational centers from all over the province of Barcelona”.
This year, the jury of the competition responsible for choosing the finalist stories of the different categories has been chaired by Xavier Flores, CEO of TMB, together with Mònica Peinado, Director of Communication and Institutional Relations of TMB; Mònica Boix, librarian of the Francesc Candel library; Franco Chiaravallotti, professor of the School of Writing of the Ateneu Barcelonès, and Carme Gibert, head of cultural projects of the TMB Foundation.
The jury has taken into account the narrative quality, the originality of the story as well as the structure and cohesion of the story and its emotional or reflective impact. Thus, the short story contest contributes one more year to encourage reading and writing among children and young people and consolidates itself as a competition with almost 20 editions of trajectory that promotes culture and creative writing in the public transport environment.
Who are the winners?
The real names of the winners have not been published, as the participants' pseudonyms have been wanted to be maintained. The winner of the first prize in the category Free Story is Enciam with the text Bip and the second is for Salambó with Another triumph of TMB. The winner of the category TweetStory is P.L.C.D.R.M.R. The first prize in the internal category TMB Staff has been for Here she is, by Marialluïsa Montllor and the second prize for Good trip, by Ikigai.
Regarding the category of School Story, the first prize in the 8 to 12 years old section is AutoSUBmarine, by Amanda, and the second for The gods also take the subway, by Frida Salinas. In the 13 to 17 years old category the first prize is for I, the poster, by Felipa and the second ex aequo is for Out of season, by Irene Alventosa, also for Love in black ink, by HeroVera and ICS (X), by Primavera. The school with the most participations has been the Institut Ventura Gassol of Badalona with 86 participating stories. In second place has been the Institució Igualada of Jorba. The prize for the most motivating teacher has gone to the teacher Ester Pinter, of the Institut Ventura Gassol of Badalona.
