Anasoft litera 2014 shortlist

The shortlist for Slovakia’s largest and most prestigious literary award for prose, the Anasoft litera 2014, has been announced (link in Slovak) and it includes a few Literalab favorites among the 10 books selected out of a total of 194.

The shortlisted authors include first timer Uršuľa Kovalyk for Krasojazdkyňa (The Equestrienne). You can read Kovalyk’s short story “Slow Walking Course” in B O D Y and “Apricot” in The Missing Slate, both translated by Julia and Peter Sherwood.

Another finalist is the award’s inaugural winner,Pavel Vilikovský, who won it in 2006. You can read an excerpt from Vilikovský’s novel The Autobiography Of Evil in B O D Y translated by Julia and Peter Sherwood.

And then there’s Jana Juráňová, whose novel Ilona. My Life with the Bard (Žila som s Hviezdoslavom) will be published in a few months by Calypso Editions, and which I am working on a review of at this very moment.

The entire shortlist is as follows:

1. Jaroslava Blažková: To decko je blázon (Vydavateľstvo Q111)
2. Ivana Dobrakovová: Toxo (Marenčin PT)
3. Dušan Dušek: Melón sa vždy smeje (Slovart)
4. Jana Juráňová: Nevybavená záležitosť (Aspekt)
5. Uršuľa Kovalyk: Krasojazdkyňa (Divadlo bez domova)
6. Maroš Krajňak: Informácia (TRIO Publishing)
7. Lukáš Luk: Záhada Považského bula (Petrus)
8. Tomáš Varga: Grázel (Koloman Kertész Bagala)
9. Pavel Vilikovský: Prvá a posledná láska (Slovart)
10. Svetlana Žuchová: Obrazy zo života M. (Marenčin PT)

(I’m not translating the titles because that is generally a no-win proposition).

The winner will be decided in September and receive a prize of €10,000. The 10 shortlisted books will be presented at the Anasoft litera festival in Bratislava that will take place from May 12 – 17 and will include readings, concerts, discussions, films, theater performances and more.

Photo – Cover of Grázel by Tomáš Varga