The Vilenica International Literary Prize

Stewart

Stewart

Administrator
Staff member
As I recently found out about the Vilenica International Literary Prize, while looking for literary festivals around Europe, I thought that we should just go and have a thread on the prize itself because it's established, awards writers from over Europe, and its winners are interesting mix of those who have seen English translation and those who, as far as I can tell, haven't.

So the Vilenica International Literary Prize, awarded every year by the Slovene Writers' Association, is decided by an extensive jury, and announced months before the Vilenica International Literary Festival, where the winner eventually receives it.

The roll call of previous winners is:
  • 1986 - Fulvio Tomizza (Italy)
  • 1987 - Peter Handke (Austria)
  • 1988 - Peter Eszterh?zy (Hungary)
  • 1989 - Jan Sk?cel (Czech Republic)
  • 1990 - Tomas Venclova (Lithuania)
  • 1991 - Zbigniew Herbert (Poland)
  • 1992 - Milan Kundera (Czech Republic)
  • 1993 - Libuše Mon?kov? (Czech Republic/Germany)
  • 1994 - Josip Osti (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
  • 1995 - Adolf Muschg (Switzerland)
  • 1996 - Adam Zagajewski (Poland)
  • 1997 - Pavel Vilikovsky (Slovakia)
  • 1998 - P?ter N?das (Hungary)
  • 1999 - Erica Pedretti (Switzerland)
  • 2000 - Slavko Mihalić (Croatia)
  • 2001 - Jaan Kaplinski (Estonia)
  • 2002 - Ana Blandiana (Romania)
  • 2003 - Mirko Kovač (Croatia)
  • 2004 - Brigitte Kronauer (Germany)
  • 2005 - Ilma Rakusa (Switzerland) & Karl-Markus Gau? (Austria)
  • 2006 - Miodrag Pavlović (Serbia)
  • 2007 - Goran Stefanovski (Macedonia)
  • 2008 - Andrzej Stasiuk (Poland)
 
Stewart

Stewart

Administrator
Staff member
Eric, can you tell us anything about the 2001 winner from Estonia, Jaan Kaplinski?
 
E

Eric

Former Member
Jaan Kaplinski. He is perhaps the most well-known Estonian poet internationally. As far as I know, he is not related to Natasha; not closely, at least.

He was born in the university city of Tartu in 1941, i.e. during the first Soviet occupation of Estonia. Six months later, when the Nazis arrived to do their bout of occupation, he could very well have ended up in Auschwitz, as Kaplinski is a Jewish name; his father was a Pole and a lecturer at Tartu University in the 1930s. From 1944, the Soviets were back, so until 1991, Kaplinski grew up, studied, worked and married in the Soviet Union.

Kaplinski studied French at school and later on structural linguistics. In the 60s and 70s he worked in a computer centre and sociological laboratory. The in the botanical gardens (maybe during a period of disfavour with the Soviet authorities).

In 1980, he was one of the signatories of the Letter of 40, signed by forty Estonian academics and intellectuals who wanted more press freedom and an element of autonomy for the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (ESSR). This was the first bold attempt by Estonians to express their dissatisfaction with Soviet reality. They sent it to Pravda, na?vely expecting it to get published. The signatories were, of course, all interviewed by the KGB, who weren't thrilled with Estonian "nationalism". Kaplinski retracted his criticisms of Soviet reality. This has caused some bad blood (he was mockingly and unkindly called "Kapitulinski"), but is understandable given the pressure that the Soviet secret police could put on people and their families. You didn't mess with the KGB.

He is married to the poet Tiia Toomet, and they have six or seven children, all grown up by now. The Kaplinskis live in Tartu. A few years ago Jaan Kaplinski was Writer in Residence at Aberystwyth University in Wales.

His early poetry was very short and cryptic. Some of it was hinting at the unfreedom of Estonia. Later on he also wrote much longer poems and many essays on cultural matters. He knows several languages, including Chinese.

Biography:

http://jaan.kaplinski.com/translations/johannes.html

Read more about him and by him at:

http://elm.einst.ee/issue/26/kaplinskis-changing-tale

http://www.estlit.ee/index.php?id=625

http://jaan.kaplinski.com/English.html

Translations (including into English):

http://www.estlit.ee/index.php?id=728

Recent photo:

http://elm.einst.ee/issue/26
 
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E

Eric

Former Member
More on this year's Vilenica; pronunciation: veel-eh-NEETS-ah, rather than Vile Knicker. The list of this year's participants is at:

http://www.vilenica.si/ENG/participants.html

So Slovenia is now firmly on the literary map.

The literature in focus this September is that of Lithuania. Most of the names there are familiar to me Tomas Venclova is their grand-old-man poet. Eugenijus Ali?anka is their grand-young-man poet. Au?rinė Jonikaitė runs the service that publishes lots of information of contemporary Lithuanian literature.

I see another Estonian name on the Vilenica website for this year, that of J?ri Talvet. Talvet is a CompLit man and has written poetry himself. He has also helped translate Estonian poetry into the language of Spain called Galician (not to be confused with the adjective "Galician" describing part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire of yore). This language is spoken "above Portugal", so to speak, in that bit of Spain that hangs over Portugal on the map. The language or dialect closely resembles Portuguese, so I'm told. See:

http://elm.einst.ee/issue/15/estonian-contemporary-poetry-galician

Another name familiar to me is the Ukrainian Yuri Andrukhovych, whose novel Perverzion is available in English in the Unbound Europe series published by the Northwestern Press in the United States.

Under publishers and editors is Monika Sznajderman, who with her husband Andrzej Stasiuk (who won this year's Vilenica Prize; see: http://www.vilenica.si/ENG/Andrzej_Stasiuk_en.html) runs Czarne, one of the most dynamic and innovative Polish publishing houses.

John O'Brien of the Dalkey Archive Press is the publisher of the recent Verhaeghen novel Omega Minor and also of one of my translations from Estonian.

Alexandra B?chler is Czech and lives in Britain. She runs Literature Across Frontiers.
 
E

Eric

Former Member
Benny Profane

Benny Profane

Well-known member
As @Morbid Swither talked about this relevant prize on the Nobel Prize Speculation, I've started this thread to discuss about it.

Some names were laureated with The Nobel such as Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke and others are potential cadidates to Nobel such as Mircea Cărtărescu, Peter Nádas, László Krasznahorkai, Ana Blandiana, Thomas Venclova, Dubravka Ugrešić, Yurii Andrukhovych, Claudio Magris etc won that prize.

The 2022 winner is the Latvian poet Amanda Aizpuriete.
 
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Benny Profane

Benny Profane

Well-known member
About the prize (according to the website of the Festival):

Vilenica International Literary Festival​

The Vilenica International Literary Festival, a gathering of poets, prose writers, dramatists and essayists, is organized by the Slovene Writers’ Association. The festival takes place annually in Lipica and at other venues in Slovenia.
Since the first international festival Vilenica in 1986, the climax of the event has been the presentation of the Vilenica International Literary Prize, awarded by the Slovene Writers’ Association in accordance with its statute to a Central European author for outstanding achievements in the field of literature and essay writing.
The Prize Winner is selected by the Vilenica jury, while the official presentation takes place in the impressive atmosphere of a Karst cave which gave the name to both the prize and the festival. Along with the grand Vilenica Prize, another award is presented within the festival, the Crystal Vilenica. The youngest of all Vilenica prizes is the Young Vilenica awarded by the Association of Writers from the Primorska Region and the JSKD – Republic of Slovenia Public Fund for Cultural Activities (Regional Branch Sežana).
Featuring numerous literary and cultural events – round-table discussions, literary readings, presentations of contemporary literatures and literary publications –, the Vilenica festival usually takes place in the second week of September.
The Vilenica jury, advised by the jury consultants, selects authors from around Europe and beyond. At one of the several literary readings participants read their work, while the Vilenica Almanac features extracts of their writing in the original as well as in the Slovene and English translation. The theoretical part of the festival provides many opportunities for in-depth debates, while social events add to a relaxed atmosphere for socializing and meeting.​
 
Benny Profane

Benny Profane

Well-known member
There are two others Prizes ("Crystal Vilenica Prize" and "CEI Award for Young Writers"). Here is more information about them:

Crystal Vilenica​

The Crystal Vilenica award is presented to an author featured in the Vilenica Almanac and who appears at one of the literary readings within the festival. The winner is selected by an international jury, comprised of the guests of the festival. The presentation takes place within the literary matinée at the Štanjel castle. The winner of the Vilenica Crystal receives a statuette and the opportunity to appear at the distinguished literary festival Cúirt taking place in April in the Irish town Galway. As part of the author exchange programme between the two festivals established ln 2007, the Vilenica festival welcomes last year’s Poetry Slam Award winner of the Cúirt festival as the Cúirt festival will host the Crystal Vilenica winner.

Former Crystal Vilenica award winners are:

2021 – Jazra Khaleed, Greece
2020 – Sibila Petlevski, Croatia
2019 – Manjola Nasi, Albania
2018 – Shota Iatashvili, Georgia
2017 – Antonella Bukovaz, Italy
2016 – Kateryna Kalytko, Ukraine
2015 – Blerina Rogova Gaxha, Kosovo and Polona Glavan, Slovenia
2014 – Liliana Corobca, Moldova
2013 – Tania Malyarchuk, Ukarine
2012 – Rumen Leonidov, Bulgaria
2011 – Dan Coman, Romania
2010 – Goran Vojnović, Slovenia
2009 – Luljeta Lleshanaku, Abania
2008 – Andrej Khadanovich, Belarus
2007 – Piotr Sommer, Poland
2006 – Mojca Kumerdej, Slovenia
2005 – Vladas Brazinas, Lithuania
2004 – Valžyna Mort, Belarus
2002 – Pál Závada, Hungary
2001 – Natalka Bilocerkivec, Ukraine
2000 – Vörös Istvan, Hungary
1999 – Angelo Cherchi, Italy
1998 – Peter Semolič, Slovenia
1997 – Nicole Müller, Switzerland
1996 – Kaća Čelan, Bosnia and Hercegovina
1995 – Marzanna Bogumia Kielar, Poland
1994 – Slavko Mihalić, Croatia
1993 – Francesco Micieli, Switzerland
1992 – Endre Kukorelly, Hungary
1991 – Grendel Lajos, Slovak Republik
1990 – Aleš Debeljak, Slovenia
1989 – Dubravka Ugrešić, Croatia
1988 – Ewa Lipska, Poland
1987 – Gregor Strniša, Slovenia

CEI Award for Young Writers​

The CEI Award for Young Writers is promoted by the Central European Initiative (CEI) and the Slovene Writers’ Association (SWA) within the Vilenica International Literary Festival. In the context of the extraordinary challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the CEI and the SWA have decided to revise the long-standing CEI Fellowship for Writes in Residence and provide in 2021 a new concept to the initiative, launching the CEI Award for Young Writers. The Award aims at promoting the young generation of writers and supporting the circulation of their literary works through the translation in the languages of the CEI countries. The Award envisages the translation of one of the awardee’s works into Slovenian and the translation into another CEI language of the candidate’s choice.

Former recipients of CEI Award:

2021 – Stefan Bošković, Montenegro
2020 – Yasen Vasilev, Bulgaria
2019 – Ivan Shopov, North Macedonia
2018 – Maria Paula Erizanu, Moldova
2017 – Andriy Lyubka, Ukraine
2016 – Tanja Bakić, Montenegro
2015 – Kateryna Kalytko, Ukraine
2014 – Mirko Božić, BiH
2013 – Artem Čapaj, Ukkraine
2012 – Alja Terčić, BiH
2011 – Ognjen Spahić, Montenegro
2010 – Maja Hrgović, Croatia
2009 – Dragan Radovančević, Serbia
2008 – Ivana Sajko, Croatia
2007 – Marianna Kijanovska, Ukraine
2006 – Goce Smilevski, Macedonia
 
Benny Profane

Benny Profane

Well-known member
2023 winner:

Ottó Tolnai (Hungarian/Serbian Poet):
www.poetryinternational.com

Ottó Tolnai

Ottó Tolnai studied Hungarian literature and philosophy in Novi Sad and Zagreb. He belonged to the ethnic Hungarian minority in the former Yugoslavia, where artists and intellec...
www.poetryinternational.com www.poetryinternational.com

vilenica.si

Vilenica Prize Winner 2023

Vilenica Prize Winner 2023: Ottó Tolnai The Vilenica jury – consisting of Aljoša Harlamov (President), Amalija Maček (Vice President), Ludwig Hartinger, Aljaž Koprivnikar, Martin Lissiach, Aleš Mustar, Tone Peršak, Gregor Podlogar, Diana Pungeršič, Jutka Rudaš, Đurđa Strsoglavec and Julija...
vilenica.si
 
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