2018 Saba Literary Prize Winners Revealed in Frankfurt
The winners of Georgia’s leading literary contest Saba have been announced. The award ceremony was held in Frankfurt, in the Kaisersaal, the historic hall of the Frankfurt City Hall.
The full list of winners of the Saba Literary Prize 2018 are:
- Novel of the Year: Lasha Bughadze - "Small Country" (Bakur Sulakauri Publishing House)
- Prose Collection of the Year: Levan Muskhelishvili - "Short Stories" (Cezanne)
- Poetry Collection of the Year: Zurab Rtveliashvili, "Dictatorship of Poetry"(Intellect)
- Debut of the Year: Zura Jishkariani - "The Chewing Dawns" (Bakur Sulakauri Publishing House)
- Essay and Documentary Prose of the Year: Irma Tavelidze - "Stalin's Spruces and Other Texts" (Diogene)
- Georgian Translation of Foreign Work of the Year: David Tserediani, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe"Faust II" (Bakur Sulakauri Publishing House)
- Foreign Translation of Georgian Work of the Year: Catherine Tate, for German translation of Julia Deng - Rezo Cheishvili's "Blue Mountains"
- Foreign Critique of Georgian Literature of the Year: Tilman Spreckelsen
- Foreign Publisher of Georgian Literature of the Year: Mitteldeutscher Verlag
- Award for Contribution to Georgian-German Literary Relations: Nino Kharatishvili
- Award for Special Contribution to Literature: Rezo Gabriadze
The Saba award ceremony is considered the main literary event of the year. This year, the 16th Award ceremony was held on October 12 at Kaisersaal, historic hall of the Frankfurt City Hall, as Georgia was an honorary guest of the Frankfurt Book Fair. The Saba Award Ceremony was one of the largest and the most outstanding events within the Georgian program.
Winning authors received monetary prizes from TBC Bank in addition to special prizes.
Honorary foreign guests, including famous writers, foreign publishers, and German officials also attended the ceremony alongside Georgian authors and members of the official delegation from Georgia.
The annual Literary Award Saba, founded by TBC Bank back in 2003, is now the most prestigious and influential award in Georgia.
Each year, the jury reviews literary compositions (novels, poetic/prosaic collections, documentary prose, translations etc.) and Georgian translations of foreign texts of the previous year.
This year, the jury members of Saba included: Professor Zurab Kiknadze, Rector of Ilia State University Giga Zedania, translator Lela Dumbadze, screenwriter Keti Devdariani, and actress Nino Kasradze.