Miodrag Pavlovic Recipient of Vilenica Grand Prix 2006
Serbian poet Miodrag Pavlovic will receive this year's Vilenica Grand Prix when the traditional festival of Central European authors gets under way in September in Slovenia.
The pioneer of Serbian modernism, Pavlovic caused a cultural clash between traditionalists and modernists with his debut 1952 collection of poems "87 Poems", explained the president of the Vilenica jury Veno Taufer.
Pavlovic's poetry, including his later, non-modernist poems, are marked by the search for a way out of chaos into the cosmos, said Taufer at a news conference in Ljubljana on Thursday.
The 21st Vilenica International Literary Festival will be held between 6 and 10 September. Its new statute, which replaces the old one from 1986, redefines its Central European character.
Having been connected with the aim of toppling political regimes, the festival will continue to promote Central European identity through resisting linguistic and cultural fusion.
Discourse on Central Europe is still relevant even if it has lost its political significance, said the organiser of the festival's programme Miljana Cunta.
She added that Central Europe is an elusive term but one thing is certain, "it is only meaningful if it is aware of its own diversity".
This year the festival will focus on less known literature, featuring Basque literature with special guest Bernard Atxago. An anthology of contemporary Basque literature will be published to mark the occasion.
Otherwise the festival will follow the established programme: a round table discussion under the auspices of the Central European Initiative (CEI) to the theme of "who can hear the neighbour's story".
A novelty will be a EUR 5,000 scholarship funded by the CEI for young writers from Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania. The winner will be announced at the festival.
So far 40 artists have confirmed they will be coming to Vilenica. Last year's festival winners Ilma Rakusa and Karl-Markus Gauss will again visit the festival.
More articles from this issue:
Archive
|