Saturday, March 18, 2023, 11:49
In order to encourage writers from the north to write in Basque, the Elkar Foundation and the Basque Culture Organization (EKE) have presented a new call for literary grants. Anyone who is interested should explain the main features of the project they want to work on in a short 2-4 page quote, including length, style, reasons, sources, structure or purpose; and an 8-10 page sample of the work before June 30, 2023. That’s right, no information about the author will be revealed anywhere.
Among the proposals received, the jury of three members will select the winner and, if the work is not of sufficient quality, they may not award the amount of money. After receiving the nomination, the winner will have a period of one year to complete and deliver the project and, finally, it will be published by Elkar publishing house. Among other things, Adur Larrea’s comic ‘Lurbintto ohoina’ has been published through this grant.
The initiative is organized every two years, changing the genre of the essay each time, and the author of the work selected by the jury will receive 6,000 euros, including the relevant taxes, half upon notification of the jury’s decision and the other half upon publication of the work. In this case, the work to be done will be a narrative for teenagers and, within that, it can be a novel, a graphic novel or a collection of stories.
As defined in the rules, anyone born or living in the North can participate, without age restrictions. In the same way, the works must be created in the Basque language of the north, have not been previously published and awarded and are not adaptations of other works.
This literary grant took the place of the Gazteluma award. The award was organized from 2001 to 2019, once every two years, and the following works received recognition: ‘Ambroxio’ (Eneko Bidegain, 2002), ‘Skyroom’ (Ramuntxo Etxeberri, 2004), ‘Goizeko sijiak’ (Nora Arbelbide, 2006), ‘ Lonely people’ (Béatrice Urruspil, 2010), ‘Jaun Martin, Otalazt’ (Peio Jorajuria, 2012), ‘Roundabout’ (Katixa Dolhare-Zaldunbide, 2014), ‘And if we get lost, what?’ (Egoitz Zelaia, 2016), ‘Ms Girgileri’ (Maialen Hegi-Luku, 2018) and ‘Ene baitaan da biz’ (Maddi Ane Txoperena, 2020).