The winners of Saba 2015 were revealed
Thursday, September 10
On September 7, at the award ceremony held in Chateau of Mukhranbatoni the winners of year 2015 of the annual literary competition Saba were revealed. Best books and authors of the year were revealed in the following nominations:
Best literary debut – Giorgi Tsiklauri, Translation of Peter Ackroyd’s London (publishing house Azri);
Best literary critique – Malkhaz kharbedia, Text and Truth, (publishing house Azri);
Best essay and documentary prose – Irakli Makharadze, The Great Dumb (Bakur Sulakauri Publishing);
Best translation – Khatuna Tskhadadze – Umbreto Eco, The Prague Cemetery (publishing house Diogene);
Lela Dumbadze - Virginia Woolf, To The Lighthouse (Bakur Sulakauri Publishing);
Best play – the jury decided not to grant a prize in this nomination in 2015. With their decision, the prize devoted for the “best play” nomination was not canceled, instead two winners were revealed in the “best translation” nomination;
Best collection of short stories – Gogi Chagelishvili, Painter (publishing house Intellect);
Best collection of poems – Paata Shamugia Schizociety (publishing house Intellect);
Best novel – Abo Iashagashvili, „Royal Merry" (publishing house Diogene);
Best foreign translation of Georgian literary work – Christine Lichtenfield, Novel by Otar Chiladze, A Man on the Road, translation into German language.
Prize for special contribution to the development of literature - Besik Kharanauli.
The winners were awarded with Saba prizes and solid monetary prizes.
This year’s Saba Award Ceremony was held in historic Chateau of Mukhranbatoni, located in Mtskheta region, in Mukhrani village.
The names of the jury members were also revealed at the ceremony. This information was traditionally kept confidential during the competition. 5-member jury changes annually and it includes literature specialists, writers, winners of previous Saba competitions. The members of this year’s jury were: Zurab Kiknadze, Kety Kantaria, Levan Berdzenishvili, Zviad Ratiani, and Davit Turashvili.
315 works of different authors were submitted to this year’s competition. 46 of them were selected for the final stage by the jury. Winners were revealed from this latter list at the award ceremony.
Saba award ceremony was aired live on Imedi TV. Musical support of the event was provided by Tbilisi Symphonic Orchestra headed by Vato Kakhidze. Famous young Georgian soloists participated in the special musical program.
Literary prize Saba 2003 was founded by TBC Bank and Pen Centre in 2003. In 13 competitions held up to now, 115 monetary prizes - totaling almost GEL 450 000 -were awarded. Among other authors, the laureates of Saba are Tchabua Amirejibi, Anna Kalandadze, Vakhushti Kotetishvili, Guram Dochanashvil and others.
