2017 Writer of the Year Award Winners (Awarded March 19, 2018)

Main nomination

• First Prize - Oleg Larionov
• Second Prize - Maria Musnikova
• Third Prize - Alexander Makhnev

The award ceremony took place on March 19, 2018 at the Grand Conference Hall of the Government of Moscow and gathered over eight hundred guests from more than 50 regions of Russia: from the Crimea and Kaliningrad to the Amur Region and the Khabarovsk Territory, as well as authors writing in Russian from countries Europe, Asia and North America. The event was held with the support of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications on the eve of World Poetry Day. Before the start of the solemn ceremony, a presentation of the books of the last season's prize winners took place. Among them are new books by poet Alla Sharapova, writers Irina Raksha and Alexander Shimlovsky, collections by actor Alexander Demidov and bard Andrei Vasiliev. A book fair was organized in the foyer of the Grand Conference Hall of the Government of Moscow, where the guests of the evening were presented with competitive almanacs and collections of finalists.

The ceremony was hosted by the legendary Anna Shatilova and TV presenter Yevgeny Sules. Soloists of the Opera Studio of the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music Alena Rostovskaya and Danaktion Makhov took part in the literary and musical concert, the verses of the laureates were performed by the actor Igor Ilyin.

The ceremony was attended by well-known writers, politicians, journalists and cultural figures: Yuri Ryashentsev, Tatyana Polyakova, Konstantin Kedrov, Roman Zlotnikov, Vladislav Artemov, Vladimir Vishnevsky, Mikhail Vizel, Galina Khomchik, Boris Semenovich Yesenkin, Sergei Rybakov, Elena Nogina. Greetings and congratulations from public and state organizations sounded from the stage: from the State Duma, the Federation Council, the Executive Committee of the World Federation of UN Associations, the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications, the Russian Book Chamber.

The "Poet of the Year" and "Writer of the Year" awards were established by the Russian Union of Writers and are the largest in terms of the number of participants: the competition for awards is held among several hundred thousand authors from Russia, near and far abroad who publish their works on the Internet. A grand jury evaluates a long list of several thousand authors, and the short list (list of finalists) includes 200 poets and 100 writers. To date, this is the only literary project in Russia with such coverage of the audience and geography of participants. The winners of the award receive a contract for the publication of the book at the expense of the Russian Union of Writers, as well as a symbol of the award - a figurine made in the form of a pen.

"BUNIN PRIZE - 2017"

Moscow University for the Humanities, together with the National Institute of Business, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the National Union of Non-State Higher Education Institutions, the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, established the Bunin Prize, dedicated to the memory of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, an outstanding Russian poet and writer, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nobel laureate. This is the only non-state literary prize awarded annually to outstanding word artists writing in Russian. When establishing the Bunin Prize in 2004, the Board of Trustees was guided by the lofty goals of maintaining Russian literature and reviving the best traditions of Russian literature.
On October 24, 2017, a solemn ceremony was held in the conference hall of the Moscow University for the Humanities, at which the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Bunin Prize, a member of the Union of Writers of Russia, the rector of the university, Professor Igor Mikhailovich Ilyinsky, together with members of the Jury, presented well-deserved prizes to new laureates.

The winners of the International Bunin Prize 2017 are:
Igor Volgin - for the book of poems "Personal data" and the poetic cycle in the magazine "Znamya". Volgin Igor Leonidovich was born in Molotov in 1942. He is a candidate of historical and doctor of philological sciences, an honorary member of such associations as the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and the International Society of F. M. Dostoevsky. As a professor, he gives numerous lectures at higher educational institutions, for example, at Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov at the Faculty of Journalism, as well as at the Literary Institute. A. M. Gorky. He published collections of poems "Ring Road" (1970), "Six in the morning" (1975), "Personal data" (2015).

Nikolai Zinoviev - for the books of poems "Wait for Sunday", "At the Motherland", "The Wall".
Nikolai Alexandrovich Zinoviev was born in the small town of Korenovsk, Krasnodar Territory, in 1960. He is one of the strongest contemporary poets, a poet whose books always find their reader. This is explained by the fact that in his poems he sharply raises the problems of Russia and mourns the pain of his country. At the same time, in all his works he remains a true patriot.

Timur Zulfikarov - for the book of poems "Golden Letters of Love". Timur Zulfikarov is a poet, prose writer and playwright who writes in Russian. Zulfikarov was born in Dushanbe in 1936. The main works of the author have been translated into 12 languages ​​of the world. His novels about Khoja Nasreddin, Omar Khayyam, Ivan the Terrible, Amir Timur and the monumental narrative about the life and afterlife of a modern poet - "The poet's earthly and heavenly wanderings" - gained wide popularity. Zulfikarov is the author of 20 books of prose and poetry, the circulation of which exceeded one million copies. In 2009, collected works of the poet were published in seven volumes. Zulfikarov is also a laureate of the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Prize, the Best Book of the Year Prize, and the Anton Delvig Prize.

about. Leonid (Safronov) - for the book of poems "The Forester's Daughter", "Holy Russia Hidden", "White Colt Walks". Archpriest Leonid Safronov was born on October 19, 1955 in the village of Rudnichny, Verkhnekamsky District, Kirov Region. He is the rector of the St. Nicholas Church in the village of Rudnichny, Verkhnekamsky district, Kirov region. Father Leonid Safronov is a Russian poet. Author of thirteen poetry books, member of the Writers' Union since 1989; laureate of literary awards of the magazines "Moscow" and "Our Contemporary"; laureate of two All-Russian Literary Prizes: Nikolai Zabolotsky (2005) and Alexander Nevsky (2010). The poetry of L. Safronov is characterized by penetrating lyricism, epic breadth of coverage of the history of the Fatherland, the depth and scale of the development of national themes. A significant place in his poetry is occupied by children's poems, but religious themes, and more broadly - a religious view of the world - are decisive in his work.

BOOKER 2017

American Man Wins 2017 Booker Prize George Saunders for Lincoln in the Bardo.
The book tells about the grief of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, who is experiencing the death of his 11-year-old son, Willie. In the course of the story, Lincoln finds himself in an intermediate state, which in Buddhism is called "bardo", which gave the name to the novel. The writer's works have not yet been published in Russian.
Born in 1958, Saunders graduated from Syracuse University in 1988 with a master's degree in creative writing and is the recipient of many awards and prizes. Since 1997, Saunders has taught at Syracuse University, while also publishing fiction and non-fiction.
In his writing, Saunders often focuses on the absurdity of consumerism and corporate culture, as well as the role of the media. While many critics see satirical overtones in much of Saunders' work, he also raises moral issues. Because of the tragicomic elements in his work, he has been compared to Kurt Vonnegut, whose works inspired Saunders.

"A. SOLZHENITSYN PRIZE - 2017"

The Alexander Solzhenitsyn Literary Prize in 2017 was awarded to Vladimir Petrovich Enisherlov with the wording “for thirty years of leadership of the journal Our Heritage” from the date of its foundation; for the enormous cultural and educational work on the search for and publication of forgotten works of Russian literature and philosophical thought; for high-class expert efforts in the rescue and preservation of museums, historical, architectural and natural monuments.
Vladimir Enisherlov - literary critic, writer, literary critic, was born on December 26, 1940 in Moscow. Graduated from the Literary Institute. A. M. Gorky and graduate school of the Literary Institute. Candidate of Philological Sciences, the topic of the dissertation is "Alexander Blok - a literary critic (1902-1918)". He headed the department of literature and art in the magazine "Spark".
In 1987, he received an offer from D.S. Likhachev to join the Foundation of Culture, which was being created, and become the editor-in-chief of the historical and cultural journal of the Foundation - Our Heritage. During the years of his leadership, the journal published 119 issues. The materials of philosophers and writers, artists and musicians, researchers of painting, architecture, ancient art, drama theatre, ballet, cinema have been published, and at the same time in the printing performance of the highest level. Readers were presented with previously unknown texts and materials from the archives of A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov, A. Griboedov, A. Blok, A. Bely, Z. Gippius, M. Tsvetaeva, materials from the heritage of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, V. Solovyov, S. Bulgakov, N. Berdyaev, P. Florensky, G. Fedotov.

"LYCEUM - 2017"

A new literary award "Lyceum" named after Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin for young writers and poets has been created in Russia. On February 27, 2017, the acceptance of works for the new literary award "Lyceum" named after Alexander Pushkin for young writers and poets started. The purpose of the award is to find and encourage young talented Russian writers and poets who can make a significant contribution to the preservation and development of world fiction.
Authors between the ages of 15 and 35 can become applicants for the award.
The Lyceum Award will be held annually. Both authors and regional book publishers and mass media can submit works.
The winners of the award are determined in two categories - poetry and prose, in each of which three prizes are awarded. The winners of the award will be named by the jury chaired by Pavel Basinsky on the birthday of A.S. Pushkin June 6, 2017.
The short list, announced on May 16, in the nomination "Poetry" included the Kursk people: Andrey Boldyrev and Vladimir Kosogov.

Andrey Vladimirovich Boldyrev was born in 1984 in Kursk. Published in the journals Siberian Lights, Emigrant Lyra, Ring A, Prologue, in the almanacs LAK, Ilya, in the collections New Writers, Planck. Member of the V and VI forums of young writers of Russia. Grand Prix "Ilya Prize" (2006), laureate of the I Annual International Literary Competition "Manifestation", winner of the X International Voloshin Competition (2012), shortlisted XI International Voloshin Competition (2013). Lives in Kursk.

Vladimir Nikolaevich Kosogov was born in 1986 in Zheleznogorsk. Graduated from the philological faculty of Kursk State University. He works as the editor-in-chief of the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper in Kursk.
He has been writing poetry since the age of 18. He was published in the almanac "Slavic Bells", in the collection "Autograph", in the magazine "LAK".
Author of the book "According to the word of sadness." Manifestation Award Winner.
Member of the Kursk Union of Writers. Lives in Kursk.

Russian literary awards - 2017

"Big Book" - 2017

First Prize - Lev Danilkin "Lenin. Pantocrator of solar motes"

Second Prize - Sergey Shargunov “Kataev. Pursuit of Eternal Spring"

Third Prize - Shamil Idiatullin "City of Brezhnev"

The winner of the reader's vote was the book "Kataev. The pursuit of eternal spring" by Sergei Shargunov.

The book presents the first detailed biography of the outstanding prose writer and poet Valentin Petrovich Kataev (1897-1986), devoid of ideological bias. Few people know that the writer came from an old priestly family, among his close relatives were archbishops - new martyrs. The hero of Socialist Labor Kataev was at one time a white officer, a student of Bunin, he was sitting in the execution cellar of the Odessa Provincial Cheka ...

The writer Sergei Shargunov, relying on memoirs, archival documents, memoirs and biographical literature, managed to recreate the difficult, somewhat mysterious, closely intertwined with literary work life of Valentin Kataev - a complex and controversial person deeply involved in the historical events of the twentieth century.

The second and third places in the reader's vote went to the books “Lenin. Pantokrator Sunny Motes” by Lev Danilkin and “City of Brezhnev” by Shamil Idiatulin.

Recall that the finals of the 12th season of the Big Book national award included works by ten Russian writers. The list of finalists includes such well-known authors as Mikhail Gigolashvili, Viktor Pelevin, Andrei Rubanov, Alexei Slapovsky.

Summing up, Mikhail Butov, Chairman of the Council of Experts, noted: “This season, many writers have rethought themes familiar in Russian literature and presented them in completely different ways. We see the formation of a new tradition of the Russian big book.” Literary critic, member of the Big Book Expert Council Dmitry Samoilov emphasized: “This year the list of finalists represents not only Russian literature, but Russian life in general.”

See more details about each book.

"National Bestseller" - 2017

In 2017, the shortlist of the award, formed by the results of an open vote of 20 members of the "grand jury", included seven works.

The jury described the short list as "annoying" - the works presented in it differ too much in terms of both aesthetic and genre categories. “The shortlist included very different books, starting with the genre and continuing with the creative technique and thought about culture. On the one hand, Alexander Brener, with the book "Lives of Murdered Artists", which shocks an overly cultured reader, and on the other hand, Elena Dolgopyat's wonderful book "Motherland", absolutely calm," Vadim Leventhal, secretary of the award, said. He noted that the presence of such different works in the list makes the list the most controversial in recent years, but, it is possible, also the strongest.

The winner of the literary award "National Bestseller - 2017" was Anna Kozlova with the book "F20".

"Russian Booker" - 2017

The shortlist for the Russian Booker Prize includes six finalists:

Mikhail Gigolashvilli "Secret Year", Igor Malyshev "Nomach. Sparks of a Great Fire”, Vladimir Medvedev “Zahhok”, Dmitry Novikov “The Bare Flame”, Alexander Melikhov “Date with Quasimodo” and Alexander Nikolaenko “Kill Bobrykin. The story of a murder.

Evaluating the results of the nomination, the chairman of the jury of the Russian Booker Prize in 2017, the poet and prose writer Pyotr Aleshkovsky, said: “The short list of the Booker reflects the completeness and diversity of today's prose. Finalistswork in different novel genres. These are authors, both beginners and already established in our literature.

Alexandra Nikolaenko became the laureate of the Russian Booker-2017 with her book Killing Bobrykin. The story of a murder.

The winner of the Student Booker Award for 2017, the winner of which is chosen by students of Russian universities, is Vladimir Medvedev with his novel Zahhok.

National competition "Book of the Year" - 2017

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, to encourage the best examples of book art and printing, to promote reading and book culture.

This year the competition received more than 500 publications from more than 120 publishing houses and publishing organizations in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Orenburg, Penza, Pyatigorsk, Chelyabinsk and other cities of the country.

In the main category "Book of the Year" The award was given to the anthology Modern Literature of the Peoples of Russia: Poetry. The book, which took a year and a half to prepare, includes more than 750 works written in 57 languages. Maxim Amelin, laureate of the Solzhenitsyn Prize, the Anti-Booker Prize and the Poet Prize, was the editor-compiler of the anthology.

The winners of the "Book of the Year" - 2017 competition in other categories are:

In the nomination "Prose of the Year" won by Lev Danilkin with the biography "Lenin: Pantocrator of solar motes".

Best in nomination "Poetry of the Year" became an anthology "100 poems about Moscow".

Award in nomination "Russia reserved" received by Sergey Anisimov for the photo album “Arctic. The Magic of Attraction.

In the nomination "Together with the book we grow" The award was given to the book Find and Show in Russia.

In the nomination "HUMANITAS" Boris Messerer's book "Bella's Flash" was awarded.

Award in nomination "ART-book" received the album "Soviet Renaissance".

The winner in the nomination "The Art of Printing" Yevgeny Steiner's four-volume Hokusai Manga: An Encyclopedia of Japanese Life in Pictures was published.

The winner in the nomination "Ebook of the Year" The Internet project "Arzamas" was named "All Russian literature of the 19th century in 230 cards".

Special Diploma was awarded the two-volume book "Favorites" by literary critic, library scientist and culturologist Ekaterina Genieva, which included her works on English and Irish literature, articles, memoirs, lectures and interviews.

Yasnaya Polyana Award - 2017

The Yasnaya Polyana Literary Prize is an annual literary prize established in 2003 by the L.N. Tolstoy "Yasnaya Polyana" and Samsung Electronics. The Yasnaya Polyana Literary Prize is awarded to writers whose works inherit the traditions of classical literature.

In 2017, the award turned 15 years old, and in honor of the anniversary season, the organizers changed the structure of the award. This year the jury chose the laureates in three categories: "Modern Russian Prose", "Foreign Literature" and "Event".

The winners of the award were:

in the nomination "Modern Russian prose"- Andrey Rubanov for the book "Patriot",

in the nomination "Foreign literature"- Mario Vargas Llosa for The Humble Hero

in the nomination "Event"- festival of children's book "LiteraTula".

A special prize was also awarded to Samsung "Readers' Choice". The prize was won by Oleg Ermakov for his novel The Song of the Tungus, which received the most votes based on the results of an open online reader voting on the LiveLib.ru recommendation service.

Andrei Bely Prize - 2017

The first independent literary award in the history of Russia. Established in 1978 by the editors of the Leningrad samizdat literary magazine "Chasy". Awarded to authors writing in Russian, regardless of their citizenship.

In 2017, the award winners were:

POETRY

Stanislav Lvovsky with the book "Poems from the book and other poems"

PROSE

Victor Pelevin "iPhuck 10"

HUMANITARIAN STUDIES

Ilya Budraitskis "Dissidents among dissidents",

Vadim Rudnev "A New Model of Reality"

LITERARY PROJECTS

Vitaly Kalpidi, inspirer, ideologist and organizer of numerous large-scale projects in the Ural and Russian poetry: - for thirty-five years of work on the creation, documentation and promotion of the Ural poetic school, - for the plot-project "Russian poetic speech-2016"

FOR SERVICES TO RUSSIAN LITERATURE

Gleb Morev, editor of the New Russian Book and Critical Mass magazines, OpenSpace and Colta websites, compiler of the Dissidents collection of interviews.

Foreign literary awards

Nobel Prize

Kazuo Ishiguro, a British writer of Japanese origin, won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The secretary of the Swedish Academy Sarah Danius, announcing Ishiguro, called the writer a "brilliant novelist", and his work is a combination of the works of Franz Kafka and Jane Austen, which also traces the ideas of Marcel Proust. Ishiguro himself noted that he regards the fact that he was awarded the prize as an "amazing gratitude" for his work.

Kazuo Ishiguro began his literary career in 1981 with short stories, and in 1982 he published his first novel, Where the Hills Are in the Haze, dedicated to the memory of Nagasaki during World War II.

One of the writer's most famous novels, The Remains of the Day, was written as a monologue-memoir of the hero against the backdrop of the approaching world war and the rise of fascism. The novel was awarded the Booker Prize. The book was made into a successful film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.

Among other works of the writer - "Don't Let Me Go", recognized as the best novel of 2005 according to Time and successfully filmed in 2010, as well as the last book of the writer "The Buried Giant".

Ishiguro's works have been translated into more than 30 languages ​​of the world, including Russian ("Where there are hills in the haze", "The Artist of the Unsteady World", "When We Were Orphans", "The Rest of the Day", "Inconsolable", "Not let me go", "The Buried Giant").

For more information about Kazuo Ishiguro, see

Booker Prize

One of the most prestigious awards in the world of English literature was presented in 2017 to the American writer George Saunders. He became the second consecutive U.S. Representative to receive this award. The first American author to win the Booker Prize was Paul Beatty in 2016.

George Saunders won the Booker Prize for his first long work, Lincoln in the Bardo. The novel takes place over the course of one night on February 20, 1862, at the time of the death of William, the 11-year-old son of US President Abraham Lincoln. From a grain of historical truth, George Saunders crafted an unforgettable tale of family love and loss, a moving exploration of death, grief, and the deeper meaning and possibilities of life.

George Saunders is very popular in his homeland. Literary observers in the United States call Saunders "hopelessly gloomy" and "hilariously funny." The writer is found original, but also compared with well-known authors - Kurt Vonnegut, James Thurber. It is noted that the merciless black humor in his works is inextricably intertwined with touching warmth. Saunders has been repeatedly named among those on whom American literature places its hopes in the 21st century. Saunders' merry tragedies are quite in demand by the public: he is published in reputable publications, put forward for awards, etc. And for us it is not without interest that this overseas writer highly appreciates Russian authors - Gogol and Babel, Chekhov and Kharms.

International Booker Prize

Unlike the traditional Booker Prize awarded to English-speaking authors, the International Booker Prize can also be awarded to a foreign writer whose books have been translated into English. Since 2015, the prize has been awarded annually (before that it was awarded once every two years) for a specific book and its translation.

The 2017 Booker International Prize winner is Israeli writer and journalist David Grossman. The 63-year-old Grossman received a prestigious award in the field of literature for his book A Horse Enters a Bar. The book was translated into English by Jessica Cohen. Under the terms of the award, the prize money of £50,000 is divided equally between the author and his translator.

David Grossman is widely known for his works in which he describes the life of teenagers, full of emotions, problems and adventures. Among them are the detective-adventure novel "Whom to run with" and the story "Duel", which were translated from Hebrew into many languages ​​of the world. Grossman also wrote novels about the lives of Jewish Holocaust survivors and sided with opponents of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In his new work A Horse Enters a Bar, David Grossman tells the story of a satirical entertainer who performs on stage in a small Israeli town. One evening, instead of the usual comedy show, the audience becomes a witness to the drama of the protagonist, who is forced to go through "the circles of his personal hell." Despite the acute social plot, the author collected many jokes in the book, one of which formed the basis of the book's title.

David Grossman - winner of many literary awards, was nominated for the Nobel Prize (2003). The writer's books have been translated into many languages, including Russian.

Goncourt Prize

The most important French literary prize was awarded to the writer Eric Vuillard for his book "The Order of the Day".

A writer and filmmaker born in Lyon in 1968, Vuillard loves small forms and seeks to teach history lessons that were not learned in time with his books (his novella 14 July was devoted to the French Revolution last year).

The Order of the Day sends the reader back to the time of Nazism in Germany. The narrative restores episodes of the alliance between the Nazi regime and German industrialists. The author's historical knowledge and unexpected plot twists led critics to recognize his book even before the award was given as "one of the most interesting novels of the season."

The Prix Goncourt is the oldest literary award in France and has been awarded annually since 1903. The monetary part of the prestigious award is only 10 euros, but the reputation of the award in France and abroad guarantees the laureate increased royalties from publishers.

Over the years, Marcel Proust, Maurice Druon, Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Houellebecq have become laureates of the award. In 2016, Leila Slimani won the Prix Goncourt for her book "Sweet Song".

Renaudo Award

The second most important French literary award was won by the journalist Olivier Gouez with the book The Disappearance of Josef Mengele.

The plot of the novel tells about the secret post-war life of the Nazi criminal Josef Mengele, a doctor who conducted experiments on people in the Auschwitz concentration camp. He managed to avoid arrest and emigrate to Argentina. In the 1950s, he was able to obtain an GDR passport in his name and even visit his hometown of Günzburg for a few days. Despite the efforts of the German authorities and the Israeli Mossad, Mengele was never brought to justice. He died in the Brazilian city of São Paulo in 1979. He was 67 years old.

It is believed that the Renaudeau Prize was established in 1926 by journalists and literary critics who were waiting for the results of the discussion of the Goncourt Prize. The award is a kind of addition to the main French award and is awarded on the same day as Goncourt.

The Renaudo Prize winners in different years were Marcel Aimé, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Louis Aragon, Michel Butor, as well as the Nobel Prize winner in literature Gustave Leklezio. In 2016, the Renaudo Prize was awarded to writer Yasmina Reza for her book Babylon.

Dublin Prize

In 2017, the Angolan writer and journalist José Eduardo Agualusa became the laureate of the Dublin Literary Prize. The author was awarded for the novel "The General Theory of Oblivion", which tells about the bloody pages in the history of Angola, in particular - about the life of a girl, immersed in the chaos of war and fear, who is trying to adapt to a hostile world.

Agualusa is the second South African writer to win the award. He is the author of 10 novels, several collections of short stories, a book of poetry. He also works as a freelance journalist for various newspapers and radio. Writes in Portuguese. His most popular novels are: "The Seller of the Past", "The Rainy Season", "Queen Ginga and How Africans Created the World" and others.

The Dublin Prize is one of the most expensive literary prizes in the world, its size is 100 thousand euros. Previous winners of the Dublin Literary Prize in different years were Orhan Pamuk, Herta Müller, Michel Welbeck, Colm Toibin and others. In 2016, Indian-born writer Akhil Sharma won the Dublin Literary Prize for his autobiographical novel Family Life.

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the United States. The prize is awarded in several categories in the field of literature, journalism, music and theatre.

New York writer Colson Whitehead won the 2017 Top Fiction Prize for his book The Underground Railroad, which has already made the NewYork Times bestseller list and won the US National Book Award.

The novel takes place on the eve of the American Civil War. According to the plot, the dark-skinned slave Cora, having become an outcast even among her own, decides to escape and gets on the underground railway, with the help of which slaves from the southern slave states moved to the free North.

In America, the novel has sold more than 825,000 copies, and Barry Jenkins, director of Moonlight, said he would make a TV series based on it for Amazon. So Whitehead's victory was quite predictable.

The Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1917. The winner in each of the 20 nominations receives $10,000. At various times such American classics as Ernest Hemingway, Margaret Mitchell, Harper Lee, Toni Morrison, John Updike and Tennessee Williams became the winners of the award.

Franz Kafka Prize

The 2017 Franz Kafka Literary Prize was awarded to the famous Canadian writer, poet and literary critic Margaret Eleanor Atwood. One of the leading figures in the world literary arena, winner of many literary awards.

Atwood's books have been translated into many languages ​​of the world and are well known to Russian readers as well. The themes of her works are universal: missed opportunities, failed relationships, ghosts of the past in the present, ignorance and misunderstanding that complicate the life of people.

The most famous novels of the writer: "Comprehension", "The Oracle Woman", "Bodily Injuries", "Cat's Eye", "The Thief Bride", "The Blind Assassin" and others. Atwood's most famous novel, The Handmaid's Tale, has become a classic of modern literature and has been successfully filmed.

The Franz Kafka Prize was the first Czech international literary award of world significance and is regarded as one of the most prestigious international awards. Awarded since 2001. The laureate is awarded a cash prize in the amount of 10 thousand dollars and a bronze statuette - a miniature copy of the Prague monument to Kafka.

Over the years, Harold Pinter, Elfrida Jelinek, Philip Roth and Haruki Murakami have become laureates of the award. The 2016 award was given to the Italian writer, journalist and essayist Claudio Magris.

Hugo Award

The American Hugo Award is given annually to the best English-language writing in fantasy genre. All registered participants of the convention at which it is awarded take part in the voting (therefore, it is considered "reader's"). The figurine that the winner receives has the appearance of a rocket taking off.

For the second time in a row, the American writer Jamisin Nora Keitza won the Best Novel Award for her book Obelisk Gate, another volume in the Broken Earth techno-fantasy series, which tells about a global cataclysm in the fictional world of Tranquility.

George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and JK Rowling have won the Hugo Award over the years.

On June 29, 1900, in accordance with the order of Alfred Nobel, the most prestigious and largest prize in the world was established. In 2001, the Nobel Prize marked the 100th anniversary of its first award. The award of the Nobel Prize is one of the highest evaluations of human activity. This is the only international award that unites in its name all the humanistic achievements of mankind - science, literature, the struggle for peace and sports (since 2001). During this time, 712 people became Nobel laureates. Of these, 97 received prizes in literature. The decisions of the committee that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature are the most criticized among all Nobel nominations. Suffice it to say that the Nobel Prize in Literature has never been awarded to either the most famous Swedish writer, Astrid Lindgren, or the genius of Russian literature, Leo Tolstoy. Among Russian writers, the Nobel Prize was awarded to Ivan Bunin (1933), Boris Pasternak (1958), Mikhail Sholokhov (1965), Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1970) and Joseph Brodsky (1987). True, Bunin, who emigrated from Soviet Russia, was awarded the prize without citizenship, Pasternak had to refuse the prize under pressure from the Soviet authorities, and Brodsky was awarded the prize as a US citizen. In monetary terms, the Nobel Prize is 1.4 million dollars and is the most significant.

2017 - Kazuo Ishiguro

British writer of Japanese origin Kazuo Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize in Literature with the wording "for having discovered in his novels of unusual emotional power the abyss that lies behind the illusory sense of connection with the outside world." Kazuo Ishiguro was born on November 8, 1954 in Nagasaki to the oceanographer Shizuo Ishiguro. In 1960, the Ishiguro family emigrated to the British city of Guildford. In 1974, Kazuo entered the University of Kent. In 1980 he received his Master of Arts degree from the University of East Anglia.
In 1982, Ishiguro received British citizenship. He is a member of the Royal Society of Literature. His works have been translated into more than 30 languages ​​of the world, including Russian.

Kazuo Ishiguro's literary career began in 1981 with the publication of three short stories. The first novel, Where the Hills Are in the Haze (1982), follows a Japanese widow living in England, haunted by memories of the destruction and rebuilding of Nagasaki. The second novel was The Artist of the Unsteady World, which explores Japanese attitudes towards World War II through the story of an artist who went through the war. This novel became the book of the year in the UK.

Ishiguro's third novel, The Rest of the Day (1989), tells the story of an elderly English butler. This is a monologue-remembrance against the backdrop of the fading of traditions, the approaching world war and the rise of fascism. The novel was awarded the Booker Prize. Critics noted that the Japanese wrote "one of the most English novels of the 20th century."
In 1995, Ishiguro's most complex stylistically novel, The Inconsolables, was published. It is filled with numerous literary and musical allusions.

The action of the novel When We Were Orphans (2000) is set in Shanghai in the first half of the 20th century. This is the story of a private detective's investigation into the mysterious disappearance of his parents 20 years ago.

Don't Let Me Go (2005) is listed as one of the 100 best English novels of all time by Time magazine. The story is told from the perspective of a young woman about her childhood in an unusual boarding school and subsequent adulthood. The action takes place in a dystopian late 20th century UK in which humans are cloned to create living organ donors for transplants. Kathy and her boarding school friends are just such donors. As in other works by Ishiguro, the terrible truth does not become clear immediately and is revealed gradually, through hints.

The Buried Giant (2015) is an unusual, bewitching novel. The author takes us to medieval England, when the Britons fought with the Saxons. An elderly couple, Axel and Beatrice, leave their village and embark on a journey full of dangers - they want to find their son, whom they have not seen for many years.
Ishiguro tells a story about memory and forgetting, about revenge and war, about love and forgiveness.
But the main thing is about people, about how we are all, by and large, lonely.
“Ishiguro is a very holistic writer. He did not look around, but developed his own aesthetic universe. Sarah Danius, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy.

State Prize of the Russian Federation (in the field of literature and art)

The State Prize, established in 1992, became the official successor to the State Prize of the RSFSR. It is the highest recognition of the merits of scientists and cultural figures to society and the state, is personal in nature and is awarded to one applicant. Only in the event that a decisive role in the achievement belongs to several persons, it can be awarded to a team of applicants consisting of no more than three people. The State Prize can be re-awarded only in exceptional cases - in the presence of new, especially significant results. Proposals for awarding the prize are submitted by the relevant councils under the President of the Russian Federation on the basis of the opinions of independent experts. The decision on who will become the laureate is made personally by the head of state. The laureate of the State Prize receives a monetary reward, a diploma and a badge of honour.

2017

Laureates of the State Prize in the field of literature and art in 2017:
Eduard Artemiev, composer, one of the founders of Soviet electronic music, author of soundtracks for such films as "Solaris", "Mirror", "Stalker" by Andrei Tarkovsky, "Sibiriada" by Andrei Konchalovsky, "Courier" by Karen Shakhnazarov. Eduard Artemiev was awarded the State Prize for his contribution to the development of domestic and world musical art.
Yuri Grigorovich, choreographer of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater of Russia - for an outstanding contribution to the development of domestic and world choreographic art.
Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage Museum, - and the contribution to the preservation of domestic and world cultural heritage was awarded the State Prize
The state award for outstanding achievements in the field of humanitarian activity this year was received by a writer and public figure Daniil Granin.
The President of Russia presented it as an exception on June 3 in St. Petersburg. At the same time, Putin especially noted Granin's talent and his contribution to the moral education of more than one generation of citizens.
Daniil Granin is a Soviet and Russian writer, screenwriter, public figure, veteran of the Great Patriotic War. He began his literary activity in the 1940s, and was repeatedly awarded various awards and prizes for his works - domestic and international.

National Literary Award “Big Book”

Big Book Award 2016

The main prize went to Leonid Yuzefovich for the book "Winter Road". The second prize went to Evgeny Vodolazkin for his novel The Aviator. Third - Lyudmila Ulitskaya for the novel-parable "Jacob's Ladder". Boris Kupriyanov, publisher and member of the expert council of the international book fair "non/fictio№", received a special prize of the "Big Book" for his contribution to literature.

In 2016, 250 books and manuscripts from different regions of Russia were sent to the competition, including books by authors from 12 countries of near and far abroad.

Mikhail Butov, chairman of the award's expert council, said: “It was quite difficult to make a clear choice. The length and composition of the list of finalists is the result of a consensus, sometimes somewhat controversial. The task is to choose something and reject something. And they accepted the good, and were forced to reject the good. We tried to choose the best of the best. I believe that both the members of the Literary Academy and the reader will have a fascinating reading and deep reflection.

Leonid Yuzefovich, novel "Winter Road"

The novel by Leonid Yuzefovich "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 book is based on archival sources that the author has been collecting for many years, but written in the form of a documentary novel. The main characters of the novel are Kolchak's general, truth seeker and poet Anatoly Pepelyaev and the red commander, future writer Ivan Strod. The first in the autumn of 1922, with the Siberian Volunteer Squad, sailed from Vladivostok with a fantastic plan to begin the liberation of Russia from the Bolsheviks from its eastern outskirts, from the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. The second blocked his path in the Yakut village of Sasyl-Sysy, which consisted of five yurts. In the center of the book is the tragic confrontation between these two idealists, divorced by fate in different camps, but who managed to preserve their humanity in the inhuman conditions of the war in the Far North. Their fates turned out differently - Pepelyaev served 13 years in prison, and Strod was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, graduated from the Frunze Academy. But life ended the same for both - during the Great Terror they were accused of counter-revolutionary activities and shot.

Evgeny Vodolazkin, novel "The Aviator"

The Aviator is a bright event in literature. The book is rated by critics as one of the most anticipated Russian novels of 2016 (according to Forbes, Meduza and others). Excerpts from this book were written last year by residents of different cities of the world as part of the popular action “Total Dictation”. The hero of the novel "Aviator" is a man in a state of tabula rasa: once waking up in a hospital bed, he realizes that he knows absolutely nothing 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 fragmentary and chaotic memories that came to him: St. remembers exactly the details of life, phrases, smells, sounds of that time, if the calendar shows the year 1999?.. The novel is written in the form of diary entries of the protagonist. The reader can simultaneously learn about the events of the past from the lips of an eyewitness and hear an assessment of the present from the lips of an outside observer. In Russia, Evgeny Vodolazkin is called "Russian Umberto Eco", in America - after the release of "Lavr" in English - "Russian Marquez". The writer's works have been translated into many foreign languages.

Ludmila Ulitskaya, novel "Jacob's Ladder"

The novel "Jacob's Ladder" is a family chronicle of six generations of the Ossetsky family, born by the author from his own past, many years of personal correspondence between his grandparents, from the fears of the "silent generation" of his parents and painstaking work. Yakov Ossetsky, an intellectual and joker, writes to his wife Marusya from camps, and years later their granddaughter Nora finds and reads this correspondence. Diaries, letters, telegrams, grandfather's personal file, kept in the KGB archive - step by step, Nora discovers an amazing grandfather, a dear and close person, whom she saw in reality only once, in the mid-fifties. The life of Nora herself, a theater artist, meanwhile goes on as usual ... Both lines - grandfather and granddaughter - twist in the novel into a skillful double helix, forming either the biblical Jacob's ladder, or a unique DNA molecule.

Lyudmila Ulitskaya about the novel: “In 2011, I opened a rather voluminous folder that had been kept at my house a long time ago, since my grandmother died. In it, I found a correspondence between them and my grandfather, which lasted for many years, starting in 1911 ... Actually, after finishing the book “The Green Tent”, I decided not to write any more novels. But the letters I found made me take up this incredibly difficult, simply overwhelming work again.

Booker Award

Booker was founded in 1968. Initially, the prize was awarded for the best novel written in English in the countries that were part of the British Commonwealth. The prize was created to create an award for literature in the English-speaking world outside the United States comparable to the Prix Goncourt or the best American literary prizes. Very quickly, the Booker Prize gained weight and gained a reputation. Citizens of the British Commonwealth, as well as Ireland, can apply for the award. Over the years, such well-known authors as Kingsley Amis, Iris Murdoch, Salman Rushdie, Michael Ondatier, whose novel The English Patient was based on the film, became the winners of the Booker. The Booker Prize is £50,000 (about $80,000).

2016 - Paul Baty

American Paul Baty won the British Booker Prize in 2016. Paul Batey won the prestigious award for his novel The Sellout. The book is about a young African American who wants to restore slavery in a Los Angeles suburb.
The Booker Prize jury chose the social novel Sell Out from six contenders, including the psychological novel Eileen by American author Ottessa Moshfeh; "Hot Milk" by Deborah Levy (Great Britain) about the problems of the relationship between daughter and mother; forensic novel "His Dirty Plan" by Graham McRae Bourne (UK); Don't Say We Have Nothing by Canadian Madeleine Thien is a family saga set in revolutionary China; "All That Is Man" by Canadian-British writer David Shalay.
The novel begins with a trial, the main character of which, like, in fact, the story, is a wild black guy. Accused of reviving slavery, he reproduces in a sarcastic monologue his life up to the current moment, having previously dragged on a joint.
In anticipation of the official translation of the book, most Russian-language sources still call the work literally - "Sale". However, the very word “sellout”, to match the ambiguous narrative, suggests options: from successful collections and completely sold out goods to betrayal and venality in slang. Apparently, translators in general are waiting for a difficult (but honorable, after all, speech about the Booker laureate) task - to adapt the book for the Russian reader, while retaining its essence, which is very specific to the author's realities. It should be noted that in the homeland The Sellout was also awarded the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award.

New Pushkin Prize

The new Pushkin Prize is awarded in Moscow on May 26 on the birthday of A.S. Pushkin (old style). The New Pushkin Prize was established in 2005 by the Alexander Zhukov Foundation, the Pushkin State Museum, and the Mikhailovskoye State Museum-Reserve. The new Pushkin Prize is awarded in two categories - "For the total creative contribution to the national culture" and "For the innovative development of national cultural traditions."

And the first winner of such an award in 2005 was Sergey Bocharov.

2016

The new Pushkin Prize in 2016 was awarded to the poet and translator Victor Kulle "For the total creative contribution to the national culture."
In addition, the Award Council, chaired by Andrey Bitov, decided to give a special diploma “For the Preservation of Family Memory” to the creative team of the authors of the collection “Relatives: We are from Zaonezhye” (Petrozavodsk, 2015). The collection includes stories of 50 ordinary people from Zaonezhye, aged 53 to 95, who recall their lives on the pages of the book using the Zaonezhsky dialect.

Russian Booker Award

The Russian Booker Prize was founded in 1991 as the first non-state prize in Russia since 1917. Awarded annually for the best novel of the year in Russian, it has won and continues to be the country's most prestigious literary prize. The purpose of the award is to draw the attention of the reading public to serious prose, to ensure the commercial success of books that affirm the humanistic value system traditional for Russian literature. The first award took place in 1992. Publishing houses and editorial offices of major literary magazines, libraries and universities, the list of which is annually approved by the Committee, have the right to nominate works for the award. In 2006, the Booker Committee decided on an experiment designed to further expand the "reader representation" in nominating novels for the competition. All libraries are invited to participate - state and university, regional and city. It is worth noting that over the years, Viktor Astafiev, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Bulat Okudzhava, Tatyana Tolstaya, Vladimir Sorokin, Denis Gutsko have become Booker laureates over the years.

"Russian Booker" - 2016

“Practically all the novels submitted for the award focus on topical, painful issues of our time and affirm the humanistic system of values ​​traditional for Russian literature. From the very beginning, I was very worried about the novel "Fortress" by Peter Aleshkovsky. This is a living romance with an unusual hero. The main thing is that here the hero is positive, which rarely happens in our modern literature.

Leonid Yuzefovich's book "Winter road. General A.N. Pepelyaev and anarchist I.Ya. Strode in Yakutia. 1922-1923" received a grant of 750 thousand rubles.
At the solemn ceremony the jury of the "Student Booker" proclaimed the name of its laureate. The novel by Irina Bogatyryova "Kadyn" became the winner.

In the country of golden mountains, where the spirits of ancient shamans live, the entrance to Shambhala is hidden from human eyes. This country is ruled by Kadyn - the great lady. As a girl, she was trained by an old shaman, in a fight with the spirits she acquired a new name, and the secrets of the world order and gaining power were revealed to her. "Kadyn" is a book about strength and power, about inevitable changes and the great Path, about love and true fidelity.

The information was prepared by the chief librarian of the Acquisition and Processing Department R.V. Privalov.

Today Leyla Budaeva sums up the literary results of the outgoing year: talks about the five major book awards of our time and shares the list of winning novels and works included in the shortlists. You can start making your next year's reading list now!

Booker Prize

Founded in 1969, but until 2014 only writers from the UK, Ireland and the British Commonwealth could apply for it. Now a novel from any country can be nominated for the award - the main thing is that it be written in English.

This year's winner was "Lincoln in the Bardo" by American George Saunders. The book takes place over the course of one evening and touches on a real event - the death of 11-year-old William, son of US President Abraham Lincoln in February 1862. The boy enters the bardo - a kind of intermediate state described in Buddhism as the interval between death and the separation of mind and body. According to Saunders, the inhabitants of the bardo are "disfigured by desires that they did not fulfill while they were alive." Wanting to get out of this trap, William tries to communicate with his father.

"4 3 2 1", Paul Auster (USA)- the action of the novel takes place in the second half of the twentieth century and tells about four versions of the life of a boy named Archibald Ferguson, developing in parallel to each other. Each of them speaks in their own way about his studies, growing up and relationships.

"History of Wolves", Emily Friedlund (USA)- the debut novel of the famous short story writer, which tells about a fourteen-year-old girl, Madeleine. She lives with her parents in the wilderness of northern Minnesota, acutely feeling alone and out of touch with the world.

"Entering the West", Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan)- the novel touches on the themes of emigration and the problems of refugees. The plot is based on the story of a young couple, Said and Nadia, who find themselves in the middle of a civil war in an unnamed country.

"Elmet", Fiona Moseley (Great Britain)- another debut novel in the shortlist of the award. Brother and sister Daniel and Kathy live with their father in the village of Elmet: they walk in the moorlands, raise cattle, and sincerely care for each other. The idyll continues until the family is threatened...

"Autumn", Ali Smith (Great Britain)- 101-year-old Daniel ends his days in a nursing home, where 30-year-old Elizabeth visits him regularly. Between them, despite the colossal difference in age, there was a really warm relationship. The action of the novel takes place in the fall of 2016 - after the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union and, in the words of the members of the jury of the Booker Prize, is a "meditation on the theme of a changing world."

Goncourt Prize

The French award for achievements in the genre of the novel has been awarded annually since 1903. According to the charter, one can become its laureate only once. The only exception is the writer Romain Gary. The first time he received the award in 1956, and 19 years later he was awarded it again under the name of Emile Azhar.

This year's winning novel was The Order of the Day by Eric Vuyard. The plot is based on real events and takes place in Nazi Germany. The book tells about the formation of the Nazi regime in alliance with prominent German industrialists.

The shortlist for the award also includes:

"Bakhita", Veronique Olmi- the main rival of the winning novel, the plot of which is also based on real events. This is the story of a girl born in the west of Sudan in the middle of the 19th century. Kidnapped by slave traders at the age of seven, she passes from one owner to another until she is ransomed by the Italian consul. In Italy, she is placed in a convent, after which she expresses her desire to be baptized ...

"Hold your crown tight" Yannick Haenel- A certain writer has created an unnecessary script for a film about Herman Melville (the author of the famous "Moby Dick"). In New York, he meets a famous director who is interested in his manuscript, after which a time of adventure begins in the life of a hero.

"The Art of Losing" by Alice Zenite- a novel about a girl from a Kabyle family who came to France from the north of Algeria. The book tells about the fate of several generations of refugees who remained in captivity of the past, as well as the right to be yourself - without regard to anyone else's ideas about who you should become.

Pulitzer Prize

Established in the United States in 1903 and awarded for achievements in literature, journalism, music and theatre. Curiously, many of the award-winning books have never made the best-seller lists (exceptions include The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, which I'll talk about in a post on American literature), and most of the award-winning plays never did. not staged on the stages of Broadway theaters.

The winner of the Fiction Novel Award was The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. The book takes place on the eve of the Civil War. The dark-skinned slave Cora decides to escape and finds herself on a secret route system - an underground railway, with the help of which slaves were moved from the southern (slave-owning) states to the north. Whitehead emotionally talks about important milestones in the history of American slavery and subsequent segregation - the forced separation of the population along racial lines.

The nominees also included:

"Imagine Me Gone", Adam Haslett- the story of how difficult relationships develop within a family after a depressed father of three commits suicide.

The Sport of Kings, C.E. Morgan- The plot takes place in the American South. Ambitious Henry, a member of one of the oldest families in Kentucky, decides to turn his family lands into a stud farm for breeding thoroughbred horses - future race winners.

Russian booker

The award was established in 1992 on the initiative of the British Council in Russia as a project similar to the British Booker Prize. Awarded for the best novel published during the year.

The novel-laureate of 2017 was the book by Alexandra Nikolaenko "To Kill Bobrykin: The Story of a Murder". 200 pages of text speak of what is going on in the soul of the impressionable Sasha: day after day he is nostalgic for the times when he was in love with his classmate Tanya. Now she is married to Sasha's neighbor, Bobrykin. To the hero, he seems to be a personal demon, some kind of evil that has haunted him since childhood - for this reason he is going to kill him.

The shortlist for the award also includes:

The Secret Year, Mikhail Gigolashvili- the novel describes two weeks from the life of Ivan the Terrible in that strange period of Russian history, when he left the throne to Simeon Bekbulatovich and shut himself up in the Alexander Sloboda for a year. The book with elements of phantasmagoria paints a psychological portrait of the king, his vulnerable, painful subconscious.

Bare Flame, Dmitry Novikov- a story that confesses its love to the harsh Russian North. The writer throws a bridge from our days to the distant past, sincerely admires the beauty and richness of nature and talks about the spiritual component of modern life.

"Zahhok", Vladimir Medvedev- the book tells about the Russian teacher Vera, who involuntarily remained with her children in Tajikistan during the civil war in the early 1990s. The polyphonic novel, written on behalf of several characters, allows you to consider events from several angles.

Appointment with Quasimodo, Alexander Melikhov- dozens of murderers pass through the office of criminal psychologist Yulia, whose fate depends on her decision to consider them sane or not. What makes them break the law? The subject of reflection in this philosophical novel is the phenomenon of beauty.

"Nomah. Sparks of a Great Fire, Igor Malyshev- another novel on the theme of the civil war. Nomakh (the protagonist) exactly repeats the path of Nestor Makhno, an anarcho-communist and leader of the insurrectionary movement in southern Ukraine in 1918-1922.

Nobel Prize

Unlike other awards, the Nobel Prize does not have an official list of finalists. About those who claimed the main literary prize of the world this year, we will know only after half a century, when the archives will be published. The award was given to the British writer of Japanese origin Kazuo Ishiguro, who "in his novels of incredible emotional power reveals the abyss hidden behind our illusory sense of connection with the world" - such a formulation was voiced by the Nobel Committee.

The beauty is that most of Ishiguro's prose has been translated into Russian, and the cult " The rest of the day"And" Do not let me go"- filmed. "At the end of the day" (under this name the film was released in Russian distribution) was nominated for eight Oscars, the main roles in it were played by Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. In the less successful film Don't Let Me Go, Charlotte Rampling, Keira Knightley and young Carrie Mulligan and Andrew Garfield played.