Winners of the Booker Prize for Literature. What to read during the holidays? Personalized literary awards
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About 100 thousand new books are published in Russia every year, and dozens of previously unknown authors appear. How to choose what to read? “Kultura.RF” talks about contemporary authors who in recent years have become winners of the largest Russian literary awards, whose books have topped bookstore sales rankings for months. Critics view them favorably, famous writers speak flatly about them, but most importantly, their books have become important events in the cultural life of the country.
Evgeniy Vodolazkin
Photo: eclectic
A professor of ancient Russian literature, a researcher at the Pushkin House in St. Petersburg, a student of Dmitry Likhachev, a real St. Petersburg intellectual - this is how Evgeny Vodolazkin was introduced at lectures, conferences, and meetings a few years ago. Now he is not only one of the most promising authors of modern Russian literature, but also one of the most famous: you won’t see his books in a rare store, Vodolazkin’s name is among the leaders in requests in libraries.
In 2012, he literally burst into the literary space with the novel “Laurel.” And the more unexpected the success was for the author (which he spoke about more than once), the greater the reader demand turned out to be. "Laurel" is one of the few examples of recent years when the reader's taste coincided with the choice of criticism. The novel receives the two most “high-budget” domestic awards - “Big Book” and “Yasnaya Polyana” and within two years of its release, in addition to Russia, it becomes popular abroad - today “Lavr” has been translated into 23 languages.
The latest news was news of the purchase of rights to a full-length film adaptation of the novel. The book seemed to contain everything that a picky critic and a reader greedy for a good read were waiting for - a rich language, interesting literary style and vocabulary of ancient Russian lives, an interestingly retold story of a medieval elder and healer, in which several historical plots are intertwined, the integrity and beauty of artistic images, helping to instill the general reader's taste for literature.
This is not the author's first novel. Previously, the novels “The Rape of Europe” (2005) and “Soloviev and Larionov” (2009) were published. In addition, Evgeny Vodolazkin is the compiler of several books about Dmitry Likhachev - “Dmitry Likhachev and his era” (2002) and “Part of land surrounded by sky” (2010) - stories, memories of life on the Solovetsky Islands in different historical periods. Following in the footsteps of “Lavra”, in 2013 the collection “A Completely Different Time” was published, combining stories and short stories written earlier.
After the first success, “everyone began to wait for the second “Laurel,” as the author himself said more than once. But an experienced philologist and literature connoisseur, Evgeniy Vodolazkin knew that a second “Laurel” could not be written.” This time the author was fascinated by the history of the twentieth century, or more precisely, by the events of a hundred years ago - the revolution of 1917 and its consequences. The literary premiere in the spring of 2016 was released under the title “The Aviator.” Even before the book’s release, a fragment of the text was written across the country as part of the “Total Dictation” educational project, and the drawing for the book’s cover was made by the artist Mikhail Shemyakin. A novel of expectations - from the day of its release until the end of 2016, the book is in the top sales of the largest stores, it has a large number of favorable reviews in the press and, as a result, received the “Big Book” award. Today the author is working on a new novel, which will be dedicated to the era of the second half of the last century.
Guzel Yakhina
Photo: lit-afisha
Another bright, one might say unexpected literary debut. A young writer from Kazan, Guzel Yakhina, first searched for a long time for the possibility of realizing her film script “Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes,” and then offered publishing houses a novel of the same name, but even the capital’s thick magazines did not take it (which does not speak at all about the quality of the prose). Finally, the text was published in the Novosibirsk magazine “Siberian Lights”. But the real luck was that the manuscript ended up in the hands of Lyudmila Ulitskaya. The history of the dispossession of the Kazakh Tatars, intertwined with the bitter fate of other peoples of the USSR in the 30s, full of picturesque images and talentedly presented in a strong style in the genre of realism, did not leave the famous writer indifferent, and she recommended the novel to her publisher.
“The novel has the main quality of real literature - it goes straight to the heart. The story about the fate of the main character, a Tatar peasant woman from the time of dispossession, breathes such authenticity, reliability and charm, which are not so often found in recent decades in the huge stream of modern prose.”, - Lyudmila Ulitskaya will later write in the preface to the novel.
The literary fate of the novel is somewhat similar to the fate of Vodolazkin’s “Lavr”. In 2015, “Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes” also received the “Big Book” and “Yasnaya Polyana” awards, was translated into 20 languages, received a huge number of grateful reviews from readers and remained in the top sales for a long time. After the literary success, the Rossiya-1 TV channel volunteered to film the book in the form of an eight-episode film. According to the author, her dream is for Chulpan Khamatova, also born in Kazan, to play the main role in the series.
Valery Zalotukha
Photo: nt.vm.ru
Until 2015, the name of Valery Zalotukha was known more in the world of cinema - for his many years of collaboration with Vladimir Khotinenko. Valery Zalotukha became the screenwriter of many famous films - “Makarov”, “Muslim”, “Roy”, “72 Meters”, and later he made documentaries. What about literature? In 2000, the story “The Last Communist”, published in Novy Mir, was included in the final list of the “Russian Booker”; the stories “The Great March for the Liberation of India” and “Makarov” went unnoticed. Since then, the name Zalotukha disappeared somewhere behind the literary horizons, only to loudly declare itself two years ago. It was then that the two-volume novel “Candle”, almost 1,700 pages long and almost larger in volume than War and Peace, came out of print. The book turned out to be a rare phenomenon in modern literature. The enormous size of the novel that grew out of the story; 12 years that the author spent writing it; the theme is “the dashing 90s”, without any seemingly reference to historical themes... All this is not quite in the tradition of modern prose, which is usually written quickly, fits perfectly in a coat pocket in printed form and is the result of a clearly implemented idea author, a “literary project”, with a readership calculated even before writing.
The book aroused reviews not so much from the reader and critic, but from fellow writers, who immediately discerned in the multi-page tome a serious, sincere attempt to create that great Russian novel for which the reader is regularly nostalgic and which, since the times of Rasputin, Solzhenitsyn and Astafiev, has almost forgotten by writers.
“I’m afraid that all previous film scripts and literary merits of Zalotukha will fade in front of the novel “Candle” and he will be remembered as the author of these two massive volumes...- Dmitry Bykov says about the book. - “Candle” is a novel about a good Russian person, which is practically non-existent now. This is another Russian “walking through torment.” But the charm of this hero is such that everything that happens to him evokes our deepest sympathy.”.
Is a “great romance” possible today? Is it possible to describe the just-gone era of the 90s in this style?.. All these questions stirred up the literary community, which resulted in the novel being awarded the Big Book Prize for 2015. The drama of the situation was added by the early and sudden death of the author - literally a few weeks before the presentation of “Candles”.
In 2016, the Vremya publishing house published the book “My Father, a Miner,” which absorbed almost all of the author’s fiction written before “Candle.” A collection of scripts by Valery Zalotukha is being prepared for publication.
Alisa Ganieva
Photo: forum-dag.ru
For more than 15 years in Russia there has been the largest youth literary award “Debut” under the leadership of writer Olga Slavnikova. The 2010 award ceremony turned out to be an intriguing affair - the winner in the “Large Prose” category was an unknown author, Gulla Khirachev, with the story “Salaam to you, Dalgat!” - turned out to be a young literary critic Alisa Ganieva. By nationality - Avar, a graduate of the Literary Institute named after. Gorky, Alisa Ganieva discovered in modern Russian literature (which is important - youth) the theme of the culture of the Caucasus, or more precisely, of her native Dagestan. The author focuses the reader's attention on the peculiarities of traditions and temperament, and most importantly - on the Europeanization of Dagestan and the entire Caucasus, tries to understand how the republics are joining the new 21st century, what difficulties they face, what innovations they adapt to, and what they reject.
In 2010, a collection of criticism by Alisa Ganieva, “The Flight of Archiopteryx,” was published, in 2012, the novel “Holiday Mountain” was shortlisted for the “Yasnaya Polyana” award, and the 2015 novel “The Bride and Groom” became a finalist in the “Russian Booker” and “ Student Booker". All of them are also dedicated to the theme of the Caucasus. Alisa Ganieva's books have been translated into several languages and have received a large number of reviews abroad.
Sergey Belyakov
Photo: republic.ru
The name of Sergei Belyakov first sounded loudly in 2013, when he was awarded the Big Book Prize for his study “Gumilev, Son of Gumilyov.” A historian by training, editor of the literary magazine “Ural” (and himself a native of Yekaterinburg), Sergei Belyakov works in the non-fiction genre. “Gumilyov, son of Gumilyov” is not just a study of the fascinating biography of the famous orientalist historian. This is a biography of the son of two great poets of the Silver Age, symbolically intertwined with the history of the twentieth century. Sergei Belyakov’s second book was the 2016 premiere “Mazepa’s Shadow.” The book did not receive high awards, but it strengthened the author’s authority as a serious researcher working on the border between literature and history.
Someone will say, this is non-fiction, what does the list of writers have to do with it? Disputes on this matter have been going on for a long time, and just as long ago, non-fiction was recognized as a part of literature. Just look at the laureates of the same “Big Book” - the first winner of this prize in 2005, Dmitry Bykov (for the biography of Boris Pasternak) and the winner of the current 2016, Leonid Yuzefovich (for the chronicle of the Civil War). Last year's awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Svetlana Alexievich, who works in the genre of documentary prose, only strengthened the position of this genre in the literary ranks and requires the reader's close attention.
No serious literary prize can guess which writer will become a “classic” or distinguish the highest grade from the first, but it can filter out “garbage”. The fact that it brings into the reader’s circle of attention five to seven names of writers who create good-quality literature is already a lot. The main literary awards in Russia are the “Big Book”, “Russian Booker”, “National Bestseller”.
The institution of literary awards in the Russian Federation is quite developed. Prizes for the best literary works were awarded back in Tsarist Russia, in the mid-19th century, but they were common to both writers and scientists. Later, at the end of the 19th century, the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences established a special literary prize, and already in the USSR, before the Great Patriotic War, the Stalin Prize for Literature was established. If we take the total number of literary awards in Russia, then we can count several hundred of them. Many not only large, but also small provincial cities have their own literary awards, which indicates the high level of their culture. The purpose of Russian literary awards is to increase the social significance of Russian literature and attract attention to it.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER AWARD
The prize for a prose work with the potential of an “intellectual bestseller” was established in 2001. “National Bestseller” is one of the three largest Russian literary awards and the only one awarded in St. Petersburg. It was founded by literary critic Viktor Toporov (now deceased) and publisher Konstantin Tublin. The competition regularly experiences problems with funding, but in 2016 the Union for Mental Health decided to support “Natsbest”.
In 2016, the monetary part of the award amounted to 750,000 rubles, which were divided in a 9:1 ratio with its nominator. The finalists of the award received 60,000 rubles. This year the long list of awards was somewhat shorter than usual. Usually there are a little more than fifty books, this year there were forty-four.
Shortlist for the 2016 Award
For the first time, it included not six, but only five books. The short list, according to the jury, was unexpected and discouraging. The only position on the list that no one doubted was Leonid Yuzefovich with the documentary book “Winter Road” (12 points). Her success was quite predictable.
With a triumphant nine points, the Short List included a little-known writer from Kazakhstan, Eldar Sattarov, whose novel “Transit Saigon - Almaty” is about the history of Vietnam 1930-1990. caused serious controversy among the members of the Grand Jury. Aglaya Toporova received 8 points with her book “Ukraine of Three Revolutions.” Maria Galina entered the list with seven points with her book “Autochthons”.
The most mysterious writer is Mikhail Odnobibl with the manuscript of the novel “Queue” (5 points), which is a Kafkaesque fantasy based on late Soviet material.
The National Best nominee was born in East German Leipzig in the early 1960s and moved to the USSR at the age of three. He grew up in Naberezhnye Chelny, which he hated for its monotonous architecture. He served in Afghanistan as a driver at a repair base. He graduated from the prose workshop of Alexander Rekemchuk at the Gorky Literary Institute, but did not follow the path of writing. Life brought Odnobibl first to Kozelsk, and then to the Western Caucasus, where he worked at a high-mountain station in a nature reserve - recording measurements and monitoring equipment. It was the experience of unity with nature, the writer believes, that prompted him to create the novel “Queue,” nominated for National Best. Its main character, a seasonal accounting worker, first moves from the countryside to the city in the 1980s. What follows is an almost Kafkaesque fantasy: most of the residents of the village spend their lives standing in an endless queue.
Now Odnobibl lives in Sochi and, according to him, works as a gardener in a sanatorium.
The winner of the National Bestseller award in 2016 was Leonid Yuzefovich with the book “Winter Road”.
The writer worked on “Winter Road” all this time and even longer. Twenty years ago, a historian by training, he discovered in the archive the diary of the white general Anatoly Pepelyaev, who rebelled against the Bolshevik government in Yakutsk. Since then, research has been carried out, which included many other papers. But from the documentary texture, for which Yuzefovich is appreciated, a real work of art has grown - with a beautiful conflict, a love drama and complex ethical dilemmas of the characters.
RUSSIAN BOOKER AWARD
“Russian Booker” (in 1999-2001 “Booker - Smirnoff”, from 2002 to 2005 “Booker - Open Russia”) - a literary prize for the best novel in Russian, first published last year. Awarded since 1992.
In 2016, 73 works were nominated for participation in the Russian Booker Prize competition, 71 were accepted. 36 publishing houses, 6 magazines, 5 universities and 10 libraries took part in the nomination process. The “long list” of novels accepted for the competition was determined by the jury after reviewing all the works nominated for the award. Since 2008, the “long list” has been limited to no more than 24 novels.
Shortlist for the 2016 Award
- Pyotr Aleshkovsky “Fortress”
- Sukhbat Aflatuni “Adoration of the Magi”
- Sergey Lebedev “People of August”
- Alexander Melikhov “And there is no reward for them”
- Boris Minaev “Soft fabric: Batiste. Cloth"
- Leonid Yuzefovich “Winter Road”
- Pyotr Aleshkovsky “Fortress”
Pyotr Markovich Aleshkovsky- Russian writer, historian, radio host, TV presenter, journalist. He created the novel “Fortress” about an archaeologist Ivan Maltsov, honest and principled to the point of recklessness. He conducts excavations in an ancient Russian town, writes a book about the Golden Horde and himself - like the Mongol warrior from his dreams and visions - rushes to save the ancient Fortress, which is threatened with destruction at the hands of local nouveau riche and capital officials.
Evgeniy Abdullaev(pseudonym - Sukhbat Aflatuni) - poet, prose writer, translator, critic, essayist. The novel “The Adoration of the Magi” by the famous prose writer and poet Evgeniy Viktorovich Abdullaev, writing under the pseudonym Sukhbat Aflatuni, covers a huge period in the history of Russia: from the mid-19th century to the present day and tells the story of the Triyarsky family, the founder of which, the young architect of progressive views, Nikolai, was close to the revolutionary circle of Petrashevsky and the secret society of “magi”, but was persecuted by the ruling emperor.
Sergei Sergeevich Lebedev- Russian prose writer. From the age of fourteen, he worked for eight seasons on geological expeditions in northern Russia and Kazakhstan. Since 2002 - journalist of the newspaper "First of September". The novel “People of August” was published in Germany in the fall of 2015 (Fischer publishing house) and in Russia in 2016 (Alpina Publisher publishing house).
1991 August. These days, an ordinary Soviet teenager receives an unusual gift - a family history secretly written by his grandmother. This story will amaze him twice. The first time is when he realizes how much he didn't know. And the second time - when he understands that not everything has been told, that the memoirs are just a way to hide the absence of one link among many facts: who was his grandfather, his father’s father, a man never mentioned, “crossed out” from the text. Trying to solve this mystery will be destiny.
Alexander Motelevich Melikhov(real name Meilakhs) is a famous Russian writer and publicist. Alexander Melikhov’s trilogy “And They Have No Reward” took a long time to write. Its first part, “Confession of a Jew,” was published in 1994 in the magazine “New World.” The second part was first published only in 2011 in the book “Father’s Shadow”. The author concluded the family saga with the novel “Exile from Memory.”
Boris Dorianovich Minaev- Soviet and Russian journalist, writer. Editor-in-chief of the magazine "Bear". Dilogy. The first book - “Baptiste” - is an image of “soft fabric”, from the fibers of which human life and world history are woven - this is love, and betrayal, and eternal illusions, and the thirst for life, and the inevitability of death. The heroes of the novel are ordinary people of pre-revolutionary Nicholas Russia, who fall into the trap of a historical catastrophe, but remain human...
In the second part of the dilogy “Soft Tissue” - Dr. Veslensky, acquaintances from the novel “Baptiste”, the Kanevsky brothers and the Stein sisters, revolutionary soldiers and leaders of peasant armies, NKVD investigators and poets, dentists and army bakers - they all form the “soft tissue” of life, which they are trying to tear apart by war and revolution.
Leonid Yuzefovich– historian, writer. Leonid Yuzefovich’s new book “Winter Road” tells about a little-known episode of the Civil War in Russia - the campaign of the Siberian volunteer squad from Vladivostok to Yakutia in 1922 - 1923.
The winner of the 25th “Russian Booker” was Pyotr Aleshkovsky for his novel “Fortress”
“I worked on the novel for six years. I called my work that because now the most important thing is to maintain inner strength, not to give in to the cheap trends that befall us - lack of culture, the desire for profit, reluctance to explore the past, the creation of myths and the maintenance of myth-making,” - Aleshkovsky said at the ceremony.
BIG BOOK AWARD
The Russian National Literary Prize Big Book is one of the five most prestigious Russian literature prizes and the largest in monetary terms. Awarded annually to the author of the best prose work (novel, collection of stories or stories, memoirs or documentaries) that can make a contribution to the artistic culture of Russia. There are no restrictions on age, citizenship or place of residence. The monetary content is as follows: 1st prize - 3 million rubles; 2nd prize - 1.5 million rubles; 3rd prize - 1 million rubles.
The authors of 252 books and manuscripts from many regions of Russia, as well as 12 countries of the world, applied for the “Big Book” award in 2016. The long list consisted of 37 authors, and the short list of 11. In addition to the already well-known authors and works of Pyotr Aleshkovsky “Fortress”, Maria Galina with the novel “Autochthons”, Leonid Yuzefovich “Winter Road”, Evgeny Vodolazkin with the novel “Aviator” was included. The hero of his novel is a man in a state of amnesia: waking up one day in a hospital bed, he realizes that he knows absolutely nothing about himself - not his name, not who he is, not where he is. Hoping to restore the history of his life, he begins to record the memories that visited him, fragmentary and chaotic. Vladimir Dinets with the book “Songs of Dragons”. This book is a threefold journey. Physical - an extreme voyage to exotic corners of the planet, through the wonders of nature and dangerous twists of fate. Academic - an excursion into the unknown, complex, full of surprises world of crocodiles. Alexey Ivanov with the novel “Bad Weather”. The book takes place in 2008. The plot centers on forty-two-year-old Herman, nicknamed the German, a former veteran of the war in Afghanistan. The main character single-handedly organizes a daring robbery of a special van that transports money from a large shopping center.
Alexander Ilichevsky’s collection “Right to Left” is dedicated to the smells of foreign countries (Armenia and Latin America, Catalonia and the USA, Israel and Germany), the tastes of travel, the auditory perception of literature and music (from Mozart to the Rolling Stones), everything seen that remains and is imprinted forever in the “sixth sense” - memory.
Anna Matveeva’s book “The Enviable Feeling of Vera Stenina” tells the story of female friendship and enmity.
Sergei Soloukh’s novel “Animal Stories” tells the story of the life of a fifty-year-old traveling salesman, and previously a university teacher, candidate of technical sciences Igor with “the most inappropriate surname for Western Siberia” (and this is where the action takes place) - Valenok. The book is based on a combination of two timelines: past and present – Igor’s memories and the situation “here and now”.
Lyudmila Ulitskaya "Jacob's Ladder". This is a family chronicle of six generations of the Ossetsky family, born by the writer from her own past, many years of personal correspondence between her grandparents, from the fears of the “silent generation” of her parents and painstaking work.
Sasha Filipenko. Novel "Bullying". Sasha Filipenko managed to pack a full-length action-packed novel into a small book. The characters in the book are his peers and contemporaries. Musicians, football players, journalists, political strategists... They were unlucky with the era. They are acutely aware of the fleeing youth, which may be why their dialogues are so fragmentary and coded, and their love does not imply continuation.
Leonid Yuzefovich “Winter Road” The novel by Leonid Yuzefovich tells about a little-known episode of the Civil War in Russia - the campaign of the Siberian volunteer squad from Vladivostok to Yakutia in 1922-1923. The book is based on archival sources that the author has collected over many years, but is written in the form of a documentary novel.
The winner of the national literary award "Big Book" was Leonid Yuzefovich
with the novel "Winter Road".
The jury awarded second place to Evgeny Vodolazkin for his novel “The Aviator.”
Third place – Lyudmila Ulitskaya for the novel “Jacob’s Ladder”.
I only talked about three awards; they are talked about more often, and they define new trends in the literary process. Read on, my friends. Books define our consciousness.
Kutuzova O.A., head of the sector of the Nikolaev regional library
Russian Literary Awards - 2016
"Big Book" - 2016
First Prize - Leonid Yuzefovich “Winter Road”
Second Prize - Evgeniy Vodolazkin “Aviator”
Third Prize - Lyudmila Ulitskaya “Jacob’s Ladder”
Lyudmila Ulitskaya's book “Jacob's Ladder” became first in the reader vote.
The novel “Jacob's Ladder” is a family chronicle of six generations of the Ossetsky family, born by the writer from her own past, many years of personal correspondence between her grandparents, from the fears of the “silent generation” of her parents and painstaking work.
Yakov Ossetsky, an intellectual and joker, writes to his wife Marusya from the camps, and years later their granddaughter Nora finds and reads this correspondence. Diaries, letters, telegrams, her grandfather’s personal file stored in the KGB archive - step by step Nora discovers her amazing grandfather, a dear and close person, whom she actually met only once, in the mid-fifties. The life of Nora herself, a theater artist, meanwhile goes on as usual... Both lines - grandfather and granddaughter - are twisted in the novel into a skillful double helix, forming either the biblical Jacob's ladder, or a unique DNA molecule.
The works of eleven Russian writers reached the finals of the 11th season of the national Big Book award. The list of finalists includes such famous authors as Anna Matveeva, Alexey Ivanov, Pyotr Aleshkovsky, Sergey Soloukh.
Before announcing the names of the finalists, the chairman of the expert council, Mikhail Butov, said: “It was difficult to make an unambiguous choice. This year was different in that we were forced to take the good ones and reject the good ones too - after all, the volume is limited. The best of the best were selected. As a result, lovers of literature will enjoy fascinating reading and deep reasoning.”
You can see more details about each book.
"National bestseller" - 2016
In 2016, for the first time, the prize included not six, but only five books. Several works failed to score the required number of points and ended up just one step short of the shortlist.
The short list, according to the jury, was unexpected and discouraging. The only position on the list that no one doubted was Leonid Yuzefovich with the documentary book “Winter Road” (12 points). Her success was quite predictable.
Together with Leonid Yuzefovich, the writer from Kazakhstan Eldar Sattarov with the novel “Transit Saigon - Almaty”, Aglaya Toporova with the book “Ukraine of Three Revolutions” and Maria Galina with the book “Autochthons” competed for the award.
The winner of the literary award “National Bestseller - 2016” was Leonid Yuzefovich with the novel “Winter Road”.
"Russian Booker" - 2016
The Russian Booker Prize included six finalists:
Pyotr Aleshkovsky “Fortress”, Sukhbat Aflatuni “Adoration of the Magi”, Sergei Lebedev “People of August”, Alexander Melikhov “And there is no reward for them”, Boris Minaev “Soft fabric: Baptiste. Cloth”, Leonid Yuzefovich “Winter Road”.
Assessing the results of the nomination, the chairman of the jury of the Russian Booker Prize 2016, poet and prose writer Olesya Nikolaeva said:
“The novels included in the short list can be classified as high-quality literature. This implies not only aesthetic significance, but also each author's (own) ideas about literary relevance and novelistic tradition. The factor of historical memory, Big Time, and Chronos plays a special role here. Mastering this space allows the hero to rise above social evil and madness, which substantiates the moral and aesthetic correctness of literature.”
The winner of the Russian Booker 2016 was Pyotr Aleshkovsky with his novel “Fortress”.
The winner of the Student Booker Prize for 2016, the winner of which is chosen by students of Russian universities, was Irina Bogatyreva with her novel Kadyn.
National competition "Book of the Year" - 2016
The annual national competition “Book of the Year” of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications was established in 1999. Its main task is to support the achievements of domestic book publishing, encourage the best examples of book art and printing, and promote reading and book culture.
In 2016, the competition received about 500 publications from more than 100 publishing houses and publishing organizations in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Orenburg, Penza, Pyatigorsk, Rybinsk, Samara, Cheboksary, Chelyabinsk and other regions of the country and national republics .
In addition to traditional nominations, the competition includes the “Book and Cinema” nomination, dedicated to the Year of Cinema, taking place in Russia in 2016.
The Grand Prix“Book of the Year” from the publication of Olga Berggolts “Siege Diary: (1941-1945)”.
The winners of the “Book of the Year” 2016 competition in other categories were:
In nomination "Prose of the Year" Alexey Ivanov won with his novel “Bad Weather.”
Best in nomination "Poetry of the Year" recognized Oleg Chukhontsev’s collection “Coming out of - leaving behind”. A special diploma in this nomination was awarded to Pavel Grushko for “Vesting the Shadows: Poets of Spain. Translations from Spanish and Catalan"
In nomination "Book and Cinema", which was established this year, the laureate was Alexei Batalov with the book “The Artist's Chest”.
Prize in the nomination "HUMANITAS" received by Vladimir Chernykh for the book “Chronicle of the life and work of Anna Akhmatova 1889-1966”.
In nomination "Printed in Russia" Evgeny Nemirovsky won for the 2-volume edition “Books that changed the world.”
In nomination “Together with the book we grow“Grigory Kruzhkov won with his collection of poems “A Cup in English”.
Nomination "ART-book" in the 5-volume edition “Yuri Vasnetsov. Materials for the biography of the great artist."
There were no competitors in only one category - an undisputed victory in "Electronic book" won the project “All Tolstoy in one click.”
Also awarded outside the nominations was Evgenia Smagina for her translations of modern Greek poetry into Russian, as the winner herself described it.
Yasnaya Polyana Award - 2016
The Yasnaya Polyana Literary Prize is an annual literary prize established in 2003 by the L.N. Estate Museum. Tolstoy "Yasnaya Polyana" and Samsung Electronics. It is awarded for the best work of art of traditional form in three categories: “Modern Classics”, “XXI Century” and “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth" (since 2012).
In nomination "Modern classic" The winner was Vladimir Makanin for his book “Where the Sky and the Hills Converged,” consisting of three stories.
In nomination "XXI Century" For the first time in the history of the award, the jury selected two laureates: Narine Abgaryan for the story “Three Apples Fell from the Sky” and Alexander Grigorenko for the story “The Blind Trumpet Lost.”
Prize in the nomination "Childhood. Adolescence. Youth" Marina Nefedova received it for her book “The Forester and His Nymph.”
In 2015, the award was presented for the first time in the category "Foreign literature", designed to select the most significant foreign book of the 21st century and celebrate its translation into Russian. The 2016 winner in this category was Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk for his book “My Strange Thoughts.”
A special prize was also awarded to Samsung "Readers' Choice". The winner of the prize - a trip to South Korea for two - was Narine Abgaryan, the author of the story “Three Apples Fell from the Sky,” which received the most votes based on the results of an open reader Internet vote on the recommendation service LiveLib.ru.
Andrey Bely Prize - 2016
The first independent literary prize in Russian history. Established in 1978 by the editors of the Leningrad samizdat literary magazine “Clocks”. Awarded to authors writing in Russian, regardless of their citizenship.
In 2016, the award winners were:
Poetry
Leonid Shvab with the book “Your Nikolai” (Israel)
Prose
Alexandra Petrova with the novel “Appendix” (Rome)
Humanities studies
Mikhail Kurtov with the book “Towards a theology of code. Genesis of the graphical user interface" (St. Petersburg)
Non-shortlist winners were also announced in the following categories:
"Literary projects"
Alexander Geller, Anton Tarasyuk (Kyiv), project "Pastish".
"Criticism"
Alexey Konakov (St. Petersburg), critical articles “Overcoming autarky” (about L. Bogdanov, UFO, No. 134, 2015); “To Leningrad and back” (about Vs. Nekrasov, October, No. 3, 2015); “On the Fields of Household” (about D. A. Prigov, Znamya, No. 10, 2015); “Evgeny Kharitonov as a forerunner of radical actionism” (Translit, No. 18, 2016); “Black and Voiceless” // B. Kudryakov. Boat of Dark Wanderings (M.: NLO, 2017)
"Translation"
Dmitry Vorobyov (Cheboksary), translations from Swedish (Christian Lundberg. Yarden, 2016) and Norwegian (Gunnar Värness. Become the world and other poems, 2012; Tur Ulven. Selected: poems, 2010)
"For services to the development of Russian literature"
Boris Ostanin (St. Petersburg), for many years of work for the benefit of modern Russian literature (magazine “Chasy”, literary Club-81, Andrei Bely Prize, encyclopedia “Samizdat of Leningrad”).
Foreign Literary Awards - 2016
Nobel Prize
The American singer, famous rock singer and author of many songs, Bob Dylan, won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The prize was awarded to him for “creating new poetic images in the great American song tradition.”
The 75-year-old singer and musician is a true idol of the rock scene. Bob Dylan is called the second most important performer in the history of music - after the legendary Beatles. But the fact that he would be the winner of the prestigious award came as a surprise to many.
As commentators note, for the first time the Nobel Prize has been awarded not to a writer, but to a musician. Nevertheless, cultural figures and politicians positively assessed this unexpected decision of the Nobel committee, calling it an event that expands the boundaries of literary genres.
To date, Bob Dylan's discography consists of 35 studio albums. Bob Dylan is also known as an artist, writer and actor. According to art critic John Elderwild, B. Dylan's paintings are similar to his music: “They are creations of the same extraordinary, unique creative imagination...” Bob Dylan is also known as the author of the novel Tarantula and the first (and so far only) volume of the autobiographical book Chronicles "
B. Dylan is the winner of 11 Grammy, Golden Globe and Oscar awards. In addition, he is the winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize, which he received for his enormous influence on pop music and culture, and the high poetry of his lyrics.
See more about Bob Dylan
Booker Prize
The winner of one of the most prestigious awards in the world of English literature was the American writer Paul Beatty. He became the first US author to win the Booker Prize.
He received the award for his fourth novel, The Sale. In addition to Beatty, there were four other contenders - Britons Deborah Levy and Graham Macri Barnett, American writer Ottessa Moshfeig, British-Canadian writer David Szaly and Canadian Madeleine Thien.
The Sellout is a social satire about a young black man who tries to restore slavery and racial segregation in suburban Los Angeles. The novel raises sensitive social issues, the theme of racism, and ridicules established stereotypes in modern society.
P. Beatty himself admitted in an interview that his novel is “a very difficult book to understand.”
International Booker Prize
Unlike the traditional Booker Prize, awarded to English-language authors, the International Prize can be awarded to a foreign writer whose books were not written in English. Since 2015, the prize has been awarded annually (previously it was awarded once every two years) for a specific book and its translation.
South Korean writer Han Kang won the International Booker Prize in 2016. She received the award for her novel “The Vegetarian”. The book was translated into English by Deborah Smith.
The novel became the first work of a South Korean writer to be translated into English. Moreover, in Han Kang’s homeland, the book was published 11 years ago. “The Vegetarian” is a surreal story about a woman who, despite the condemnation of her family and society, adheres to vegetarianism, trying to defend her independence and moral ideals.
Jury Chairman Boyd Tonkin said the panel of judges were unanimous in awarding the Han Kang Award. According to him, “The Vegetarian” is an original novel that leaves a lasting impression.
Also vying for the prize in 2016 were Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, Italian Elena Ferrante, Angolan Jose Eduardo Agualuza, Chinese Yan Lianke and Austrian author Robert Seethaler.
The £50,000 prize will be shared between the author and the translator.
Prix Goncourt
The most important literary prize in France was awarded to the writer Leila Slimani. Slimani received the award for her book “Sweet Song”.
The writer is only 35 years old, she is Moroccan by origin, and writes in French. This is only the second novel from her pen, but both the plot and the language of the narrative so impressed the ten members of the jury that they preferred Slimani over her competitors in the fight for the award.
The plot of the novel is based on a real event that occurred in the United States in 2012 - the murder of two children in New York by their nanny, an emigrant from the Dominican Republic. Slimani approached the study of this emergency like a great psychologist, identifying in the narrative a whole tangle of social and other problems that shed light on the drama.
The Prix Goncourt, which is the oldest in France, has been awarded annually since 1903. The prize is named after the French writer brothers Goncourt. The youngest of the brothers, Edmond de Goncourt, bequeathed his fortune to the literary academy, which established a literary prize.
The monetary part of the Goncourt Prize is a symbolic amount - 10 euros, but what matters to the laureate is the reputation of the award, which guarantees high circulation.
Over the years, Marcel Proust, Maurice Druon, Simone de Beauvoir, and Michel Houellebecq became laureates of the Goncourt Prize. In 2015, the prize was awarded to the author of the novel Compass, Mathias Henard.
Renaudo Prize
The winner of the second most important French literary award was the writer Yasmina Reza with her book “Babylon”. It should be noted that Yasmina Reza received two prizes for her novel - the Goncourt Lyceum Prize and the Théofaste Renaudo Prize.
Yasmina Reza is a French theater and film actress, playwright and prose writer, whose plays (“God of Carnage”, “Art”) have been staged in many theaters in Europe and America.
The narration of the novel “Babylon” is told from the perspective of sixty-year-old Elizabeth, who in one of the suburbs of Paris organizes a small party for friends that ends in a bloody massacre. As the epigraph to the novel, Reza took the first stanza of verse 137 of the Psalms of David: “By the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.”
It is believed that the Renaudo Prize was established in 1926 by journalists and literary critics who were awaiting the results of the discussion of the Goncourt Prize. The prize is a kind of addition to the main French award and is awarded on the same day as the Goncourt award.
The Renaudo Prize laureates over the years have included Marcel Aimé, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Louis Aragon, Michel Butor, as well as Nobel Prize winner in literature Gustave Leclezio. In 2015, the Renaudo Prize was awarded to Delphine de Vigan for her psychological novel Based on a True Story.
Dublin Prize
Indian-origin writer Akhil Sharma won the 2016 Dublin Literary Prize for his autobiographical novel Family Life, which had previously won a Folio Award (2015).
Akhil Sharma immigrated to the United States at the age of eight and grew up in Edison, New Jersey. He attended Princeton University, where he received a bachelor's degree in public policy from the Woodrow Wilson School. Later he became a fellow at Stanford University and won several O. Henry awards. He knows Russian literature well and teaches it.
The Dublin Literary Prize is one of the most prestigious and largest literary awards in the world. It was established in 1996. Awarded annually for the best prose work in English. The award amount is €100,000.
Previous winners of the Dublin Literary Prize over the years have included Orhan Pamuk, Herta Muller, Michel Houellebecq, Colm Tóibín and others. In 2015, the British writer Jim Crace won the prize for his allegorical novel The Harvest.
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is awarded in several categories in the fields of literature, journalism, music and theater. In 2016, one of the most prestigious literary awards in the United States celebrated its 100th anniversary.
The novel “The Sympathizer,” the debut work of Viet Tan Nguyen, was recognized as the best work of fiction of 2016. Named a book of the year by the New York Times Book Review, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and many other publications, the novel tells the story of a man whose loyalty to the communist cause and loyalty to his army comrades compete against the backdrop of the Vietnam War.
The Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1917. The winner in each of 20 categories receives $10,000.
Over the years, winners of the literary Pulitzer Prize have been Ernest Hemingway (“The Old Man and the Sea”), Harper Lee (“To Kill a Mockingbird”), Margaret Mitchell (“Gone with the Wind”), John Updike (for the novels “The Rabbit Got Rich” and “The Rabbit Got Calm.” ) and others. In 2015, the prize was awarded to Anthony Doerr for his historical novel All the Light We Cannot See.
International Franz Kafka Prize
The winner of the Franz Kafka Literary Prize in 2016 was the Italian writer, journalist and essayist Claudio Magris.
The most famous of Magris's prose is the novel Microworlds. Magris's essays are dedicated to Central Europe (the book "Danube"), as well as the works of T. A. Hoffmann, G. Ibsen, J. Roth, G. Hesse and others. He is also known as a translator of Ibsen, Kleist, Schnitzler and other authors.
The Franz Kafka Prize was the first Czech international literary award of global importance and is regarded as one of the most prestigious international awards. Awarded since 2001. The laureate is awarded a cash prize and a bronze statuette - a miniature copy of the Prague monument to Kafka.
Over the years, its laureates have included Harold Pinter, Elfriede Jelinek, Philip Roth and Haruki Murakami. The 2015 award winner was Spanish writer Eduardo Mendoza.
Hugo Award
The American Hugo Award is awarded annually to the best English-language works of science fiction. All registered participants of the convention at which it is awarded take part in the voting (therefore it is considered a “reader’s vote”). The figurine that the winner receives looks like a rocket taking off.
The winner of the award in the category “Best Novel” was the writer N.K. Jemisin for fantasy "Season Five" - the first volume of the "Broken Earth" series, which tells about a global cataclysm in a fictional world.
Over the years, George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and JK Rowling have become Hugo winners. In 2015, the Chinese writer Cixin Liu won the prize.
Compiled by N. M. Govorukhina, S. A. Barulina.
The GodLiterature.rf portal has prepared a list of current literary awards for 2016
ALL-RUSSIAN AND INTERNATIONAL
(regardless of the place of residence of the authors and the subject of their works)
ANDREY BELY AWARD
The oldest independent literary prize in modern Russia - first awarded in 1978 by the editors of the Leningrad samizdat almanac “The Hours”. Since that time, in accordance with the changing eras, it has gone through several transformations, but has retained unchanged the spirit of nonconformism and focus on the new and unusual. And also a corresponding unique “prize fund”: a bottle of vodka, one apple and one ruble. Despite this, the award enjoys constant respect in the professional community.
Award website:belyprize.ru
BIG BOOK
Prize for the best long-form prose work published in the reporting year. The largest literary prize in Russia and the second in the world (after the Nobel Prize). Established in 2005. The total prize fund is 6.1 million rubles (the first prize is 3 million), formed from interest on deposits made by large Russian businessmen and companies that created the “Center for Support of Russian Literature.” The right to nominate published works and manuscripts belongs to publishing houses, members of the Literary Academy (with the prize itself), the media, as well as regional and federal government bodies. Self-nomination is also permitted. Three prizes are awarded annually. The monetary content of the first prize is 3 million rubles, the second prize is one and a half million rubles, the third is a million rubles.
In 2015, the winner of the anniversary season of Russia's largest literary prize, the Big Book, was Guzel Yakhina for her novel Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes.
Second and third places went to the novel “Candle” Valeria Zalotukhi and “The Flood Zone” by Roman Senchin, respectively.
Award website:BigBook.Ru
POET
The prize is awarded to a poet writing in Russian “based on the totality of his merits.” Established in 2005 with financial support from RAO UES of Russia.
The prize is awarded by the board of trustees of the Society for the Encouragement of Russian Poetry. The charter prohibits awarding the prize posthumously, twice, or dividing it among several nominees. The winner of the Poet Prize is awarded a diploma, a badge and a monetary reward in the amount of 1,500,000 rubles.
As a result of heated debate in the literary community, the 2015 laureate was Yuliy Kim.
Award website: Poet-premium.ru
RUSSIAN BOOKER
Prize for the best novel of the year - according to a professional jury consisting of five rotating members under the leadership of a permanent chairman. Established in 1992 “under license” from the English Booker Prize. The monetary portion in the amount of 1.5 million rubles (and 150 thousand rubles for the finalists) has been provided by GLOBEX Bank since 2012. He also issues a grant to translate one of the award finalists into English. The Russian Booker currently has no organizational connection to the English prize of the same name.
A Muscovite became the 2015 Russian Booker laureate Alexander Snegirev .
Award website:Russian booker
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Prize for a prose work that, in the jury’s opinion, has under-realized potential as an “intellectual bestseller.” Established in 2001.
Works are nominated by nominators appointed by the organizing committee and are shortlisted based on the voting results of the professional “grand jury”, after which they are transferred to the “small jury”, composed of people who have no professional relationship with literature, chaired by a professional writer. The monetary part of the award is 250,000 rubles, with 10% of it awarded to the nominator.
Since 2014, the general sponsor of the award is the 2x2 TV channel. The final ceremony takes place in St. Petersburg.
NOSE
Established in 2009 by the Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation. A special feature of the prize is the public discussion between the “prize jury” and the “prize experts” (both are appointed by the board of trustees headed by I. D. Prokhorova). The name of the award is proposed to be deciphered as “New Sociality” and “New Literature”. The boundaries of this novelty become the subject of two lively discussions - in Krasnoyarsk, during the KRYAKK festival (in this case, a short list is determined), and in Moscow (in this case, the winner is determined). The monetary component of the award is 700,000 rubles.
In 2014, Alexey Tsvetkov became the winner, and online voting brought victory "Telluries" by Sorokin. In 2015, the weighty “The Tale and Life of Danila Terentyevich Zaitsev”, created by Danila Zaitsev, a Russian Old Believer born in China and living in Argentina.
Award website:prokhorovfund.ru
YASNAYA POLYANA
Established in 2003 by the museum-estate of L. N. Tolstoy “Yasnaya Polyana” and the Samsung Electronics company. According to the charter - for the best work of art of traditional form in three categories: “Modern Classics”, “XXI Century”, “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth" (since 2012). The results of the award are determined by a gradually rotating professional jury.
In 2015, the total size of the bonus fund increased significantly and amounted to 7 million rubles. Andrey Bitov, laureate in the “Modern Classics” nomination, received 1.5 million rubles, the winner in the “XXI Century” nomination Guzel Yakhina received 2 million rubles, and the winner in nomination “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth" Valery Bylinsky - 500 thousand rubles.
In 2016, applications for participation are accepted until April 10.
Award website:yppremia.ru
BOOK OF THE YEAR
Established in 1999 by the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications. Awarded during the MIBF in nine categories, from “Prose of the Year” to “Electronic Book”. The winners are awarded prizes and diplomas; the monetary content of the prize is not announced.
In 2015, two more nominations were added to the traditional 8 nominations and one Grand Prix: “Literary Context” (dedicated to the Year of Literature) and “Victory” (dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War).
Award website:On the page Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications
ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN PRIZE
Founded in 1998, that is, during the life of A.I. Solzhenitsyn. It is distinguished by two features: it can be awarded posthumously and can be awarded not only to writers for works of all genres (prose, journalism, poetry, etc.), but, at the discretion of the jury, also to actors, directors, publishers, whose activities, in the opinion of a gradually rotating the jury, “promotes self-knowledge of Russia, makes a significant contribution to the preservation and careful development of the traditions of Russian literature.”
The monetary part of the prize, the equivalent of $25,000, is provided by the Alexander Solzhenitsyn Russian Public Foundation, whose president is N. D. Solzhenitsyna (the writer’s widow).
In 2015, director Sergei Zhenovach became the laureate of the Alexander Solzhenitsyn Prize.
Award website: solzhenitsyn.ru
VOLOSHIN PRIZE
Established in 2008, it is awarded as part of the poetry festival of the same name, held in the house-museum of M. A. Voloshin in Koktebel, in the categories “Best Poetry Book” and “For Services to Culture.” The jury is convened by the festival organizing committee. The monetary content changes every year depending on the capabilities of the attracted patrons. In 2014, the cash portion of the bonuses was the equivalent of $3,000 and $2,000, respectively.
Website of the Voloshin Festival and Prize: voloshin-fest.ru
GRIGORIEVSKAYA PRIZE
Created in 2010 on the initiative of V.L. Toporov to perpetuate the memory of the St. Petersburg poet Gennady Grigoriev “and to encourage strategies and achievements creatively close to him in modern Russian poetry.” Every year the jury sends approximately fifty poets an invitation to participate in the competition, that is, to send their author’s selections. From among those who responded, first a “list of semi-finalists” is formed, and then a “list of finalists” and the winner is determined. The prize for first place is the equivalent of $4,000; another thousand each goes to the finalists and the winner of the “poetry slam,” that is, an express competition of poets-readers that precedes the final ceremony.
See our photo report from the ceremony Grigoriev Prize 2015, as well as the presentation of the prize to Yuri Smirnov.
Award website:genagrigoriev.ru
SPECIALIZED
(establishing a number of restrictions for authors)
DEBUT
An independent literary prize for authors under 35 years of age. Established in 2000 by Andrey Skoch’s Generation Foundation; examines works in almost all literary genres; allows self-nomination (all submitted manuscripts go through a “sieve” of professional readers). The professional jury is gradually rotating; The permanent coordinator of the award is writer Olga Slavnikova. The first prizes in all categories are 1 million rubles. Seminars are held for award finalists, and an international publishing program operates.
The list of 2015 laureates can be found on the award website, and on our website 2014 laureate Arslan Khasavov talks about what doors does it open?"Debut".
Award website:pokolenie-debut.ru
ENLIGHTENER
Popular Science Award. Established in 2010 by D. B. Zimin’s Dynasty Foundation with the goal of distributing popular science literature and encouraging Russian authors to write it. The prize is awarded in two “blocks”: natural sciences and humanities. The organizing committee of the award consists of two people: A. Arkhangelsky and A. Gavrilov. The jury, appointed in 2009 and consisting of 5 people, is annually expanded to include last year's winners. Prize winners receive 720 thousand rubles each, and their books are sent to 125 libraries across the country.
The 2014 winners were Asya Kazantseva and Sergei Yarov, and in 2015 six authors were awarded the prize in the field of popular science literature.
Award website:www.premiaprosvetitel.ru
ARKADY DRAGOMOSHCHENKO AWARD
Prize for poets under 27 years of age. Established in 2014 through the efforts of the St. Petersburg bookstore “Word Order” in memory of the St. Petersburg poet. The right to nominate is vested in the board of nominators formed by the permanent board of trustees. The professional jury is partially replaced every year. The final ceremony includes a public debate. First prize - 70,000 rubles.
The 2015 longlist included 15 nominees, and the award winner was Alexandra Tsibulya .
Award website:atd-premia.org
RUSSIAN PRIZE
The Russian Prize was established in 2005 and is one of the five most prestigious Russian literary awards. Authors who write in Russian and permanently reside outside the Russian Federation can be nominated. The partially rotating jury awards prizes in three categories - “short prose”, “large prose” and “poetry”, as well as a special prize for the preservation of Russian literature abroad. Nomination of manuscripts and autonomy are allowed. The cash content of the first prize in each category is 150,000 rubles. A publishing program is provided, carried out in partnership with capital publishing houses.
Among its laureates are Bakhyt Kenzheev, Boris Khazanov, Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Yuz Aleshkovsky, Anastasia Afanasyeva, Marina Paley, Andrey Ivanov, Margarita Meklina, Vladimir Lorchenkov, Mariam Petrosyan, Marianna Goncharova, Dina Rubina, Andrey Polyakov and others.
The 2015 laureates will be announced in April 2016, but for now only the first results are known.
Award website: russpremia.ru
LITERARY PRIZE NAMED AFTER ALEXANDER PYATIGORSKY
Awarded for the best philosophical essay. Established in 2013 “to support interest in philosophizing outside the professional philosophical community.” A special feature of the prize is that both fiction and non-fiction works can be nominated, as well as those written in Russian and translated (in this latter case, it is divided between the author, if he is alive, and the translator). The right to nominate is given to 49 nominators, whose names are published on the award website. The jury is appointed by the supervisory board. The monetary part of the award is 1 million rubles.
In 2015, in the second season of the award, the prize fund doubled to two million rubles, since in 2014 the award was not awarded to any of the nominees. The short list included five works, and the prize for the best philosophical essay received by translator Elena Dorman .
Award website:piatigorskyprize.ru
ALEXANDER NEVSKY PRIZE
Awarded for historical books. Established by OJSC Talion and the Union of Writers of the Russian Federation for books (in the genre of fiction and non-fiction) “covering the period of national history from ancient times to 1991 inclusive.” Books published since 2000 are eligible for nomination. The short list and the winner are determined by the permanent “Award Commission” co-chaired by the General Director of Talion OJSC Alexander Ebralidze and the Chairman of the Board of the Writers’ Union Valery Ganichev. The cash content of the first, second and third places is 300, 200 and 100 thousand rubles. As part of the award, a competition of museum projects is also held.
In 2015, special attention when choosing winners The jury focused on projects and works that reflected the 70th anniversary of the Victory, the 1000th anniversary of the repose of St. Prince Vladimir and the Year of Literature in Russia.
Award website:www.alexander-nevsky.ru
PLATO PRIZE
Named in honor of Andrei Platonov (1899–1951). Awarded annually to Russian or foreign literary and artistic figures for a significant contribution to the cultural heritage of Russia and the Voronezh region, for the creation of outstanding works in literature, theater, music, and fine arts, for the innovative development of humanistic cultural traditions. In 2015, the bonus amounted to 1 million rubles.
The 2015 laureate was the famous writer and critic Andrei Bitov, awarded “for aesthetic fidelity to the lonely voice of man and dedication to the common cause of returning Platonov’s legacy.”
Website of the Platonov Festival and Prize: www.platonovfest.com
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
NEW CHILDREN'S BOOK
Established in 2009 by the children's publishing house Rosmen. First of all, to find new authors. In this regard, it allows and encourages self-nomination. The jury of the award consists mainly of Rosman employees and authors published there. There are three categories - for ages 2–8 years and 10–16 years, as well as "New children's illustration"(for artists). The main prize of the competition is a contract with Rosman to publish the winning book. However, editors sometimes take into work works from the short and long lists.
The results of the 6th season of the competition have been summed up, and applications for participation in the new season are accepted until April 1, 2016.
Award website:newbook-awards.ru
BOOK
All-Russian competition for the best literary work for children and youth, organized by the Center for the Support of Russian Literature (which holds the Big Book Award). “Kniguru” is the only competition in the world that accepts both artistic and educational works, and the final decision is made by an open jury consisting of readers aged 10 to 16 years.
The winner receives 500,000 rubles, the second and third place holders receive 300,000 and 200,000 rubles, respectively.
IN long list 2015 Thirty manuscripts were included, 15 works remained on the shortlist, and the winner was Nina Dashevskaya with her work “I’m not a brakeman.”
International literary awards
Nobel Prize in Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature is one of the most prestigious awards in the world. Awarded since 1901.
The 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the American singer-songwriter and writer Bob Dylan with the wording "for creating a new poetic expression within the American song tradition." Dylan was born in 1941 (his real name is Robert Allen Zimmerman; in May 2016 he celebrated his 75th birthday), at the age of 20 he released his first disc, “Bob Dylan,” a recording of a variety of blues hits, supplemented by two of his own songs. His fame as a performer grew very quickly - he writes “protest” compositions, becomes an idol of the hippie movement, switches from acoustic to electric guitar, plays folk rock, and turns to country rock.
Dylan now has 35 studio and 13 live albums, nine Grammy awards, his songs became anthems of the anti-war movement, and the musician himself still gives up to two hundred concerts a year, his touring activities have continued with constant success for almost 30 years.
International Booker Prize
The Booker Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, awarded for a novel written in English to an author living in one of the British Commonwealth countries. This is an annual award, which was first presented in 1969.
In 2005, the International Booker Prize was established, awarded every two years. An important feature is that the International Booker Prize is awarded not for a specific book, but for “creativity, development and overall contribution to world fiction.”
The 2016 International Booker Prize winner was Han Kang (South Korea) for her novel The Vegetarian.
Han Kang teaches at the Seoul Institute of Arts. She became the first South Korean to win the Booker Prize.
The novel became the first work of a South Korean writer to be translated into English. Moreover, in Han Kang’s homeland, the book was published 11 years ago.
“The Vegetarian” is a surreal story about a woman who, despite the condemnation of her family and society, adheres to vegetarianism, trying to defend her independence and moral ideals.
Russian awards
National Literary Award "Big Book"
The National Literary Award "Big Book" was established in 2005 by the Center for the Support of Russian Literature.
In 2016, Leonid Yuzefovich received the first prize for his novel “Winter Road”
Leonid Yuzefovich was born in 1947 in Moscow. The writer spent his childhood and youth in the Urals. After graduating from the Faculty of Philology at Perm University, he served in the army in Transbaikalia, then worked as a history teacher at school for many years. Leonid Yuzefovich - writer, historian, author of the novels “Kazarosa”, “Cranes and Dwarfs”, etc., biographies of Baron R.F. Ungern-Sternberg “Autocrat of the Desert”, as well as the script for the film “The Death of an Empire”. Winner of the National Bestseller (2001, Prince of the Wind) and Big Book (2009, Cranes and Dwarfs) awards.
Yuzefovich L.A. Winter road. General A.N. Pepelyaev and anarchist I.Ya. Strod in Yakutia. 1922-1923: documentary novel / L.A. Yuzefovich. - Moscow: AST: Editorial office of Elena Shubina, 2015. - 432 p. — (Historical biographies).
Leonid Yuzefovich's new book tells about a little-known episode of the Civil War in Russia - the campaign of the Siberian volunteer squad from Vladivostok to Yakutia in 1922-1923. The main characters of the story are two historical figures: the white general, truth-seeker and poet Anatoly Pepelyaev and the red commander, anarchist, future writer Ivan Strod. At the center of the book is their tragic confrontation among the Yakut snows, the story of life, love and death. Their fates turned out differently - Pepelyaev served 13 years, and Strod was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and graduated from the Frunze Academy. Both ended their lives in the same way - during the “Great Terror” they were accused of counter-revolutionary activities and shot. They were rehabilitated - Strode in 1957, and Pepelyaev in 1989.
The second prize was awarded to Evgeny Vodolazkin for his novel “The Aviator.”
Evgeniy Germanovich Vodolazkin was born in 1964 in Kyiv. He is a philologist, a specialist in ancient Russian literature, an employee of the Pushkin House, and a student of D. S. Likhachev.
Vodolazkin E.G. The Aviator: a novel / Evgeniy Germanovich Vodolazkin. - Moscow: AST, 2016. - (New Russian classics). Waking up one day in a hospital bed, the hero of the novel realizes that he does not remember anything about himself - neither his name, nor who he is, nor where he is. Hoping to restore the history of his life, he begins to write down the memories that visited him. The reader is given the opportunity to learn about the events of the past from an eyewitness and hear an assessment of the present from an outside observer.
The third prize went to Lyudmila Ulitskaya for her novel “Jacob’s Ladder.” Lyudmila Ulitskaya was born in 1943 in the city of Davlekanovo in Bashkiria, where her family was evacuated. After the war she returned to Moscow. She graduated from the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University with a degree in biologist-genetics.
Ulitskaya L.E. Jacob's Ladder: a novel / L. E. Ulitskaya. - Moscow: AST: Editorial office of Elena Shubina, 2015. - 731 p. — (New Ulitskaya).
Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s novel “Jacob’s Ladder” is a family chronicle of six generations of the Ossetsky family, born by the writer from her own past, many years of personal correspondence between her grandparents, from the fears of the “silent generation” of her parents and painstaking work.
National Bestseller Award
"National bestseller"– annual all-Russian literary prize. Awarded in St. Petersburg for the best novel written in Russian during the calendar year. The motto of the award is “Wake up famous!” The prize was established in 2001 by Viktor Toporov.
The winner of the 16th season of the award was Leonid Yuzefovich with his novel “Winter Road”.
Independent literary award "Russian Booker"
The Russian Booker Prize was founded in 1991 as the first non-state prize in Russia after 1917. Awarded annually for the best novel of the year in the Russian language, it has won and maintains its reputation as the country's most prestigious literary prize. The purpose of the prize is to attract the attention of the reading public to serious prose and ensure the commercial success of books that affirm the humanistic value system traditional for Russian literature. The first award took place in 1992.
The winner of the 25th “Russian Booker” (2016) was Pyotr Aleshkovsky for his novel “Fortress”
Pyotr Aleshkovsky is a prose writer, historian, radio host, TV presenter, and journalist. Graduated from the Faculty of History of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov (Department of Archeology). “I worked on the novel for six years. I called my work that because now the most important thing is to maintain inner strength, not to give in to the cheap trends that are befalling us - lack of culture, desire for profit, reluctance to explore the past, creating myths and maintaining myth-making,” Aleshkovsky said at the festive ceremony.
Aleshkovsky P. Fortress: a novel / Pyotr Aleshkovsky. - Moscow: AST: Editorial office of Elena Shubina, 2015. - 592 p.
The main character of “Fortress” is archaeologist Ivan Sergeevich Maltsov, a fan of his work, honest and principled. He is conducting excavations in an ancient Russian town, and at the same time writing a book about the history of the Golden Horde. As a result, he gets involved in the struggle to save the ancient Fortress, which is threatened with destruction.
The winner of the Student Booker Prize 2016 was the author of the novel “Kadyn” Irina Bogatyreva“for overcoming the linearity of time through the harmonious mixing of the languages of mass and elite literature.”
Bogatyreva I. Kadyn/I. Bogatyreva. – Moscow: E, 2015. – 544 p. – (Ethnic fantasy).
Literary Prize "Yasnaya Polyana"
The Yasnaya Polyana Literary Prize is an annual all-Russian literary prize established in 2003 by the State Memorial and Natural Reserve “L.N. Tolstoy" and Samsung Electronics. The purpose of the prize is to celebrate the works of contemporary authors that reflect humanistic and moral ideals in line with the traditions of classical Russian literature and the work of L.N. Tolstoy.
Yasnaya Polyana Prize laureates for 2016:
In nomination "Modern classic" became a laureate Vladimir Makanin for the book “Where the Sky and the Hills Met.”
For the first time in the history of the award, the jury selected two laureates in the “XXI Century” category.
Narine Abgaryan - story “Three apples fell from the sky.” The book takes place in a remote mountainous Armenian village.
Second laureate - Alexander Grigorenko for the story "Lost the blind dudu". This is a thing about a Siberian village family where a deaf child is born. Everyone loves this boy Shurka, but his whole life is going to ruin... The story miraculously answers two main questions: what to do and who is to blame?
In the category “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth”, the prize winner was Marina Nefedova for her book “The Forester and His Nymph”.
Personalized literary awards
Andrei Bely Literary Prize
The Andrei Bely Prize was established in 1978 by the editors of the Leningrad samizdat literary magazine “Clocks”. This is the first non-state literary prize. The prize fund is 1 ruble.
In the Poetry category, the prize was awarded to Leonid Shvab (Jerusalem) for his book of poems “Your Nicholas.”
The jury considered Alexandra Petrova’s book “Appendix” to be the best prose.
In the field of humanitarian research, we chose the work of Mikhail Kurtov “Towards a theology of code. The Genesis of the Graphical User Interface."
In the category “Literary Projects” the prize was awarded to Alexander Geller and Anton Tarasyuk for the project “Pastiche Project”;
Alexey Konakov became the best literary critic.
In the Translation category, the prize was awarded to Dmitry Vorobyov for translations from Swedish and Norwegian.
“For many years of work for the benefit of modern Russian literature,” the founder of the prize, Boris Ostanin, was awarded.
Gorky Literary Prize
In 2005, the Publishing House "Literary Study" and the Russian Cultural Foundation established the All-Russian Gorky Literary Prize, the purpose of which is to support authors whose works, based on the traditional values of classical Russian literature, most fully and dramatically reflect the processes taking place in society, the country and literature. The purpose of the award is to support the formation, development and revival of national identity, morality and patriotism.
For the first time after 10 years of history, the Gorky Literary Prize has changed the name and essence of the nominations.
In 2016, awards were awarded in the following categories:
“Russian House” (criticism, literary criticism): Vladimir Bondarenko (Moscow), book “Brodsky: Russian Poet”;
“Russian World” (journalism): Yuri Miloslavsky (New York), book “What We Did to Her”;
“Russian Truth” (jury choice): Maxim Yakovlev (Kaluga region), book “Frescoes”;
“Russian Lyre” (poetry): Vladimir Semenchik (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), book “The Wind Rocks the Boat”;
“Russian Life” (prose): Dmitry Konanykhin (Moscow region), book “Grandfathers and Great-Grandfathers.”
Alexander Green Literary Prize
Russian literary prize, established in 2000 on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the birth of the writer Alexander Green by the Union of Writers of Russia and the administrations of the cities of Kirov and Slobodsky. The prize is awarded for works for children and youth, imbued with the spirit of romance and hope, and can be awarded both for individual works and for creativity as a whole.
The winner of the Alexander Green Literary Prize in 2016 was the writer from Syktyvkar Elena Stolpovskaya (literary pseudonym Elena Gabova).
Elena Gabova is the twentieth recipient of the Green Prize. This high award was awarded to her, as the author of many famous works, for artistic excellence, high professional level and consonance with the ideas of the outstanding romantic writer Alexander Green. Elena Vasilievna Gabova is a prose writer, member of the Russian Writers' Union, People's Writer of the Komi Republic, author of more than 40 books for children and teenagers. Her works have been translated into English, German, Ukrainian, Finnish, Hungarian, Norwegian, as well as into the languages of the peoples of Russia.
Two books: “Naughty Anton and the Girl Detectives” and “Grishunya on the Planet of Shaggy” were published in Japan. The author's work has been awarded many prizes in the field of literature: the Vladislav Krapivin International Literary Prize (2006), the National Children's Prize "Treasured Dream" (2008), the All-Russian Literary Prize named after. Pavel Bazhova (2010).
New Pushkin Prize
The new Pushkin Prize was established in 2005 by the Alexander Zhukov Foundation together with the State Museum. A.S. Pushkin and the Mikhailovskoye State Museum-Reserve.
The new Pushkin Prize is awarded in Moscow on May 26, the birthday of A.S. Pushkin (old style) in two categories - “For cumulative creative contribution to national culture” and “For innovative development of domestic cultural traditions.”
The new Pushkin Prize was awarded in 2016 for the 12th time.
In the category “For cumulative creative contribution to national culture,” the prize in 2016 was awarded to the poet Viktor Kulle.
Viktor Alfredovich Kulle was born on April 30, 1962. He is a Russian writer, translator, poet, literary critic, screenwriter. Creator of programs and scripts for the TV channels “Culture” and “Channel One”. Author of scripts for documentaries about Lomonosov, Griboyedov, Tsvetaeva, outstanding women of the Great Patriotic War “The Beautiful Regiment”.
This year, a special diploma was awarded to the collection “Kinfolk: We are from Zaonezhye” and its editor, journalist, historian, philologist Lyubov Geraseva.
Literary Prize named after. A. Solzhenitsyn
The Alexander Solzhenitsyn Literary Prize was established in 1997. An author can only become a prize winner once.
The 2016 Alexander Solzhenitsyn Literary Prize was awarded to Grigory Kruzhkov for the energy of the poetic word, capable of comprehending the universe of Shakespeare and making the world of English-language lyrics the property of the Russian poetic element; for philological thinking, insight into the spiritual meanings of interlingual and intercultural connections. Grigory Kruzhkov was born on September 14, 1945 in Moscow. He is a Russian poet, essayist, translator of poetry, translation theorist, researcher of English-Russian literary connections, laureate of the Russian State Prize in the field of literature. Grigory Kruzhkov is one of the largest modern translators of English poetry into Russian. He also received recognition as a children's writer, the author of more than twenty books for children, translated and original.
