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Armenia Eligible for 2021 EU Prize for Literature

Armenia Eligible for 2021 EU Prize for Literature

  • 2021 marks the first time Armenia will be eligible to compete
  • IALA Advisory Board member to serve on jury
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Armenia will be eligible for the 2021 European Prize for Literature (EUPL) for the first time in the history of the Prize. Every year 14 countries are selected for the competition. Armenia will join Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Iceland, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Tunisia and Moldova. The EUPL celebrates works of fiction with the goal of lifting up and highlighting creative and diverse authors across Europe.

The national jury of each country will nominate its winning authors. Armenia’s jury members are Armen Ohanyan (Armen of Armenia) as chairperson, Arevik Ashkharoyan, Anahit Avetisyan, Shakeh Havan, and Mkrtich Matevosyan.

As chairperson, Ohanyan negotiated with EUPL to include Western Armenian authors who are residents of Armenia.

The jury has already shortlisted a number candidates and is in the process of final review. A final decision is expected in May.

Ohanyan, who writes under the pen name Armen of Armenia, is a fiction writer, literary translator, and president of PEN Armenia. His trilogy of novels Mommyland is a landmark of both Armenian literature and Queer Armenian literature.

Ashkharoyan ​is literary agent, founder of ARI Agency and ARI Foundation, and is a member of IALA’s advisory board.

Avetisyan is a literary translator and conference interpreter. She has translated the works of Michel Butor, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Robert Pinget, and Nicolas Bouvier into Armenian.

Havan founded Artbridge, the first bookstore café and restaurant in Yerevan, Armenia. Artbridge has changed the culture of bookselling within the country through the promotion of Armenian books, which includes exporting them all over the globe and participating in international book fairs.

Matevosyan is a painter and graphic designer. He founded the Actual Art which publishes books on contemporary literature, art, philosophy, as well as children’s literature.

The EUPL is financed by the Creative Europe programme of the European Commission, which aims to achieve three main goals: to promote cross-border mobility of those working in the cultural sector; to encourage the transnational circulation of cultural and artistic output; and to foster intercultural dialogue.

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