Author Pahor Wins Viareggio Literary Prize
Writer Boris Pahor, a member of the Slovenian minority in Italy, won a prestigious Italian literary prize, the Premio Internazionale Viareggio-Versilia.
Pahor told Sunday's edition of a Trieste-based Slovenian daily that the award was a recognition to Slovenian culture and the community living in Friuli Venezia-Giulia.
Pahor, who lives and works in Trieste, is a great fighter for the rights of ethnic minorities and is best known for his book "Nekropola" (Necropolis), a novel about his experiences in the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in France.
The 95-old Pahor, who is also a fervent advocate of European cultural and language diversity, said he was glad that his story intrigued so many Italians.
"On every occasion, at every presentation of "Nekropola", people want to hear about fascism in this area and how I witnessed the arson of Narodni dom," Pahor told Primorski Dnevnik.
The author has often said that the arson of the Slovenian cultural centre in 1920 portended the cataclysm of World War II.
The book, which was translated into Italian, was sent into nationwide distribution 41 years after it was written.
"It is a kind of absurd: nobody was interested in my story before, but now everyone is," Pahor added.
Pahor was awarded the Legion of Honour (Legion d'honneur), the highest French state order, in 2007. His works have been translated into Italian, French, German and English.
The Viareggio Literary Prize, started in 1967, is conferred to world-acclaimed individuals who have dedicated their lives to culture, social progress and peace.
The list of winners includes eminent authors such as Greek political poet Alexandros Panagoulis, Nobel Prize-winning German author Guenter Grass, controversial Israeli author Abraham B. Yehoshua and Spanish Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda.
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