Fjala e plote e kryetarit te jurise se cmimit letrar Balkanika 2013, gjate ceremonise se shpalljes se shkrimtarit fitues te ketij edicioni. This year, as always, the task of the Balkaika jury was very difficult. We were presented with 7 very different books, each of which, in its own way, deserved to receive the prize. Nevertheless, there is only one prize, so the jury took very seriously the job of selecting the winner. Before announcing that winner, I would like to thank the jury members for their high level of professionalism and seriousness of purpose. It is always a joy to work with a group that is able to set aside national prejudices to choose a book purely on its artistic merits. As the jury worked, it became clear that a small group of texts was drawing the most interest. And before announcing our winner for the 2013 prize, I would like to mention two works in particular that the jury felt were worthy of particular commendation. The first is the hometown favorite, the Waltz of Happiness by Ylliyet Alicka a this is a tragicomic tale based on a true story from recent Albanian history. Alicka writes with a wonderful sense of irony and at the same time is able to link his local subject with universal themes having to do with emigration, exile, and the gap between dreams and reality. Another work that especially attracted the jurys attention was the novel Ziyan by the young Turkish writer Hakan Gunday. Gundays sometimes hallucinatory tale of the visions of a young Turkish military recruit is a searing critique of both the Kemalist project and the contemporary Turkish state. The jury is sure that his powerful novel will not be the last nomination from Gunday. The prizewinning work, however, takes a much different tack than the novels of Alicka and Gunday. Over the years, it has proven difficult to overcome the tyranny of the novel. But this year the Balkanika jury has decided to award the first prize to a collection of short stories by the Bulgarian writer Zdravka Evtimova. What impressed the jury most of all was the Chekhovian quality of Evtimovas prose, which without calling attention to itself proves fully adequate to capture the sometimes grotesque and always fascinating reality of the post-communist Balkans. Evtimovas unique voice and narrative perspective make her fully worthy of the 2013 Balkanika prize. Andrew Wachtel Tirane, 6 dhjetor 2014
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 16:24:33 +0000
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