Kadare, Kaygusuz win Balkanika literary prizes

TIRANA, Nov. 28 – Albania’s Ismail Kadare and Turkey’s Sema Kaygusuz have been announced this year’s winners of the 12 edition of the Balkan literary prize (the Balkanika). In a ceremony held on November 28 in the southern Albanian city of Vlora, where Albania declared its independence exactly 98 years ago, an international jury selected Ismail Kadare’s “E penguara, Requiem p철Linda B” as the best 2009 Balkan novel and “Namazın dusmesi’ by Turkish writer Kaygusuz as the best 2008 novel.
Both winning writers were not present in the prize award ceremony held at the local “Petro Marko” theatre in Vlora.
For Ismail Kadare, Albania’s most internationally acclaimed author, this is the second prize for this year after winning Italy’s the Lerizi “Lerici Pea” poetry festival few months ago.
His Balkanika winning book “E Penguara” is dedicated to Albanian girls who were born and grew up in internment during the hard-line communist regime in Albania.
Last year, Kadare won Spain’s Prince of Asturias literary Prize. He has been a perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize for literature. His novels and essays have been translated
into more than 40 languages.
Last month, Kadare was also present at the Tirana book fair promoting his latest book called “Mosmarreveshja” (Disagreement) on Albania’s relations with its own, which he described “as neither history not science, but simply literature, and a literary ordeal”
Some 14 Balkan writers participated in this year’s edition of the Balkanika, including Albanian young writer Ben Blushi with his “T롪etosh n롩shull” (Living on an Island) which was selected as the best novel for 2008 to participate in the competition.
The first Albanian writer to win the Balkanika was Fatos Kongoli, back in 2002.
The Balkanika prize was founded by seven publishers from Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, Romania and Turkey with the aim of bringing Balkan writers and publishers together. Every year, the winning book is translated into the languages of all the participating countries.