NIN Award presented

The winner of the 66th NIN Award for the novel of the year is Sasa Ilic for his book „The Dog and the Double Bass“ issued by Orfelin, it was announced today. Shortlisted were the novels written by Milenko Bodirogic „Through the Forests and Mountains“ („Orfelin“), Slobodan Tisma „The Horror or…“ („Carobna knjiga“), Stevo Grabovac „Mulatto Albino Mosquito“ („Imprimatur“) and Ana Vuckovic „Jugoslav“ („Partizanska knjiga“). The jury of the NIN Award for best novel of the year included, in addition to chairman Teofil Pancic, Branko Kukic, Ivan Milenkovic, Marjan Cakarevic and Marija Nenezic. The award has been presented since 1954, and the first winner was Dobrica Cosic for his novel „Roots“. In recent years, it has been awarded to writers from the former Yugoslavia, and some of the winners were Oskar Davico, Zivojin Pavlovic, Dragan Velikic, Branko Copic, Mesa Selimovic, Borislav Pekic, Milos Crnjanski, David Albahari and others. Before the presentation of the award, a group of writers sent an open letter asking their publishers to „no longer apply for the NIN Award“ calling for its „boycott“ because of, as they said, the members of the jury deciding on the recipient of the award who are „professionally or morally, and most often both professionally and morally incompetent people.“ The signatories to the open letter include last year’s winner of the NIN Award for the novel „The Delusion of Saint Sebastian“ Vladimir Tabasevic, Emir Kusturica, Vladimir Kecmanovic, as well as academician Miro Vuksanovic, who won the award in 2005 for the novel „Semolj Land“.

Izvor: Beta

Foto: Screenshot