'The jury deliberated in a plenary session, although the chairman, Mykola Riabczuk, joined us via Skype. Everything went according to the rules,' said Prof. Stanisław Bereś before the announcement of the titles and names of the finalists.
'We are under the impression that this year's list submitted for the Angelus Award includes very good names and titles, and indeed, this time the choice was very difficult,' he explained. 'Among the books that were selected for the finals are masterpieces and also titles that have some qualities of a masterpiece. Or those that imitate them skilfully,' he added.
'This year, the authors touched on biographical topics, there were also essays, as well as books of fantasy and grotesque. Submitted were also books reconstructing memory in the style of family sagas, experimental prose, as well as moral and psychological novels. As every year, widely represented was reportage, also in the historical edition,' listed Prof. Bereś. 'Many of these genres overlap.'
This year, the final seven includes the following books:
- Hen Maciej, "Solfatara" (W.A.B.)
- Janko Anna, "Mała zagłada" ["Little Annihilation"] (Wydawnictwo Literackie)
- Nyaklyayev Uladimir, "Machine with soda water, with or without syrup" transl. Jakub Biernat (College of Eastern Europe)
- Sabaliauskaite Kristina, "Silva rerum" transl. Izabela Korybut-Daszkiewicz (Znak)
- Slepikas Alvydas, "My Name Is Maryté" transl. Paulina Ciucka (College of Eastern Europe)
- Teodorescu Cristian, "Medgidia, the City at the End" trans. Radosława Janowska-Lascar (Amaltea)
- Vosganian Varujan, "Book of Whispers" transl. Joanna Kornaś-Warwas (Książkowe Klimaty)
The award ceremony of the Angelus will take place on October 15 at the Musical Theatre Capitol.
A month before (on September 15), at the official website of the awardan online voting will be launched for the book, which will receive the Natalya Gorbanyevska Readers Award, named after the late Russian poet and first president of the Angelus' jury.
The Central European Literary Award Angelus is an accolade in the field of prose for the writers from one of the 21 countries of Central Europe: Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Germany, Poland, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Hungary. It is awarded by the city of Wroclaw.
The award, which comprises the Angelus statuette by Ewa Rossano and a check for 150 000 PLN, is granted for the best book published in Poland in the previous year. From the fourth edition, the event is accompanied by an award for the translator, amounting to 20 000 PLN. It is founded by the Angelus Silesius University of Applied Sciences. If the winner is a Polish writer, then the jury decides to award the translator of one of the foreign books nominated for the final seven.
112