2019 Saba Literary Prize Winners Revealed

The winners of Georgia’s leading literary contest Saba have been announced.

The full list of winners is:

Novel of the Year- Aka Morchiladze, Cupidon at the Kremlin Wall (Bakur Sulakauri Publishing)

Prose Collection of the Year- Zaal Samadashvili, Meeting the Master (Intellect Publishing)

Poetry Collection of the Year- Zaza Bibilashvili, Puzzle (Nodar Dumbadze Publishing)

Essay and Documentary Prose of the Year- Sulkhan Saladze, Unknown Old Adjara (Batumelebi Newspaper)

Debut of the Year- Temur Babluani, Sun, Moon and Wheat Field (Manushaka Waits for Me) (Bakur Sulakauri Publishing)

Play of the Year- Aleksandre Lortkipanidze, Distoplays (Books in Batumi)

Georgian Translation of the Year- Nana Tonia, Euripides' Heckabee (Logos Publishing); Lela Dumbadze, Virginia Woolf's “Orlando” (Sulakauri Publishing)

Prize for the Outstanding Contribution to Georgian Literature - Manana Gigineishvili

This year, the Saba jury could not reveal a short list of the best critics of the year, and the award for this nomination, as well as the jury's verdict, was split into two different nominations:

Essay and Documentary Prose - Nino Lomadze, Apple Gardens (Indigo Publishing) and

Literary Debut - Niels Simeon (George Maskharashvili), Theory of 14 Crystals (Sulakauri Publishing).

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 etc.) along with the Georgian translations of foreign texts of the previous year.

This year, the prize fund has been increased - the winning authors will receive GEL 6,000 instead of GEL 4,000. The monetary prize for the nomination for the Outstanding Contribution to Georgian Literature is now GEL 10,000, up from GEL 8,000.

By Elene Dzebisashvili