European Witch Award 2021, won by Georgi Gospodinov- time.news

by time news
from Culture Editorial

The writer, already winner of the Bulgarian National Literary Prize, won the eighth edition with Cronorifugio (Voland). The award ceremony at the Turin Readers’ Club

The European Witch Award 2021 goes to the Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov. The recognition was also awarded to Giuseppe Dell’Agata, translator of the winning book, as a tangible sign of the importance of translations as a tool for dialogue and knowledge. Already winner of the Bulgarian International Literary Prize, Gospodinov was awarded for Time refuge, published in Italy by Voland.

The announcement comes from Circle of Readers of Turin where the awards ceremony conducted by the journalist Eva Giovannini took place on Sunday 17 October. During the meeting, the prizes of the 2020 edition, which due to the pandemic took place behind closed doors, were awarded to the German writer Judith Schalansky, author of Inventory of some lost things (night time), and to his translator Flavia Pantanella.

The European Witch Award arrived ateighth edition, as in previous years, it has seen five writers recently translated and published in Italy who have won an important national recognition in their countries of origin: five representative items of different literary traditions and linguistic areas and five ways of exploring the possible latitudes of the contemporary novel.

With Gospodinov, this year’s finalists – all guests at the Turin Book Fair – were Ana Blandiana with Applause in the drawer (translation by Luisa Valmarin, Elliot), Aixa de la Cruz with Transit (translation by Matteo Lefvre, Perrone), Herv Le Tellier with The anomaly (translation by Anna D’Elia, The ship of Theseus) e Anne Weber with Annette, an epic poem (translation by Agnese Grieco, Mondadori). The prize awarded by the jury composed of 22 Italian writers, winners and finalists of the witch: Gospodinov obtained 10 votes out of 22.

In Refuge Georgi Gospodinov d forma alla sua obsession with the past imagining a Europe that calls a referendum to return to the twentieth century and in which each country chooses which decade to place itself in. On the occasion of the candidacy for the European Witch, Gospodinov was interviewed in La Lettura # 515 by Alessia Rastelli together with the other finalists and the 2020 winner Judith Schalansky. The article available in the supplement App archive. The Themes section of the App also collects unpublished texts by Aixa de la Cruz, and Judith Schalansky and Georgi Gospodinov: It is difficult for me to say anything about Europe, because my novel is dedicated to this theme – he writes -. To Europe and the light industry of the past. To the memory that abandons us. And the less memory we have, the more the past overwhelms us like a flood.

October 17, 2021 (change October 17, 2021 | 21:02)

You may also like

Leave a Comment