The nominees of the Latvian Literature of the Year Award have been announced; winners will have bigger bonuses / Article

This year LALIGABA has a new design of the award and bigger cash prizes for the winners.

List of nominees for “Latvijas Literaturas gada valvas 2024”.

The best prose work

• Jen Anderson “Chalk Circles”, (“Star ABC”)
• Sven Kuzmins “Beauty and Anxiety”, (“The Book of the Day”)
• Margarita Pervenetska “Postgraduate course”, (“Book of the Day”)
• Daina Tabuna “Witches”, (“Ascendum”)
• Kristine Ulberga “Under the Dome”, (“Book of the Day”)

The best work of poetry

• Erika Berzisna “Goodbye to Bohemia”, (“Orbita”)
• Marts Pujats “Lady in White Jeans”, (“Neputns”)
• Ilmar Šlāpin “never”, (“Never”)
• Kārlis Verdins “Libyan Ballads”, (“Nebutns”)

The best literary work for children

• Andra Manfeld “Is mom home?”, (“Day Book”)
• Louise Pastore “This is my series”, (“Aminori”)
• Kārlis Verdins “Jandāliņš”, (“Big and small”)
• Ines Zander “Invent a car for yourself”, (“Big and small”)
• Ines Zander “Birds see us”, (“Big and small”)

The best translation of poetry in Latvian

• Serhiy Zhadan “Kharkiv Dynamo”, played Ingmāra Balode, Jānis Elsbergs, Māra Poliakova, Māris Salējs(“Orbit”)
• “Meter and Demeter” by Hasso Krull, cooled Guntars Godiņš(“Latvian Writers’ Union”)
• “Surrealism in Estonian poetry”, rewritten Guntars Godiņš(“Nonbird”)
• Ilya Kaminskis “Deaf Republic”, cooled Raimonds Kirkis(“Nonbird”)

The best prose translation in Latvian

• Halgríms Helgasons “A Woman in 1000 Degrees”, translated Dan Dimins(“Star ABC”)
• “Mushroom picker”, translated by Viktorije Hanišova Janis Krastins(“Pattern”)
• Vids Morkūns “Traveler stations”, translated Dace Meyer(“Star ABC”)
• Viktars Marcinovičs “Mova”, translated Mara Polyakova(“Prometheus”)
• Translated by Octavio Pass “The Grammarian Monkey”. Edwin Raup(“Nonbird”)

The brightest debut

• Gust Abele “The sweetest silence in the world”, (“Jānis Roze”)
• Linda Gabaraeva “Circles”, (“Neputns”)
• Rute Karkliņa “Hell’s Beautiful Mysteries”, (“ABC Star”)
• Roland Virk “I don’t like people”, (“Walter Daksha”)

The brightest work in literature

• Aumas Cimdiņa “Latvian literary classics as an impulse for critical thinking”, (“Zinātne”)
• Inguna Daukste-Silasproħe “Voices over the sea”, (“Day Book”)
• Viesturs Vecgravis “At the high window”, (“Day Book”)

The expert commission has decided to award two special prizes this year – to a poet and a translator Contra (Marguss Konnula) for translating and popularizing Latvian literature in Estonia, as well as to Ronald Briedis for managing the cultural education program “Literary Academy” for 20 years.

The expert committee has decided to award the lifetime award for significant contribution to Latvian literature to poet, prose writer and translator Margita Gūtman.

“For many Latvian readers – especially those who were children in the 1990s – Margita Gūtmane and “Minkāns” were the first contact with the literature of exile. Her heartfelt, sensitive poetry and prose form and strengthen the literature of exile, as well as build a bridge between those who remained in Latvia and from those who left it, while her translated and translated Latvian authors have become available in the German cultural space,” explains writer, poet, translator and researcher Ieva Melgalve, chairman of LALIGABA’s expert commission.

The organizers of LALIGABA have decided this year to increase the fund of prize winners within the framework of the existing budget, so that every prize winner will receive a 50% higher monetary bonus than before. The debut award has been financially supported by the Jelgava printing house since last year.

Also, this year’s laureates will be the first to receive the new design awards. The author of the design is Dāniels Shatalovs, whose work in 2023 won the 1st place in the competition organized by the Latvian Academy of Arts for students of the LMA design program.

About his idea, Dāniels wrote in the competition application: “The “Pretstats” award was created based on the LALIGABA logo, which depicts a person with the wings of a book, but when working in a 3D environment, it is possible to visually represent how this logo looks from the other side, that is, it appears the heavy side of the book. If from the foreground the book is seemingly light and lifts a person up in the wings, then on the other hand, a person holds it as a heavy treasure, symbolizing the importance and value of literature. The award also has a functional property – it can be used as a book stand.”

2023/2024 The 2018 LALIGABA expert commission includes its chairperson, writer Ieva Melgalve, culture journalist Undīne Adamaite, poet, comedian and musician Pēteris Draguns, literary scholar and researcher Madara Āriņa (Eversone), poet and publicist Ligija Purinaš, writer Osvalds Zebris, translator, comedian and publicist Ilmārs Zvirgzd.

The LALIGABA award ceremony will take place on April 30 at the Ågenskalns market.

The LALIGABA nominees will be read before the awarding ceremony. On April 11 at 18:30 at the “Noass” art center, everyone is welcome to attend poetry readings, while on April 18, prose readings will take place there.

CONTEXT:

The Latvian Literary Award of the Year (LALIGABA) is the most important event of the year in the literary industry in Latvia. It ensures professional evaluation of literary works and recognition of the authors for the year’s outstanding works published in Latvian literature.

The award is organized by the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia, the International House of Writers and Translators and the Writers’ Union of Latvia, supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia and the Jelgava Printing House.