Václav Burian Award: 5 poets from 5 countries will compete in poetry

Visitors will of course be part of the marathon of author readings and live jury debates. In addition to the Poetry Prize and the Audience Award, there will also be a Prize for Cultural Contribution to Central European Dialogue, which will be awarded to Polish art historian and economist Jacek Purchla on 18 October.

“This year’s nominees for the Poetry Prize are Polish poet and prose writer Urszula Honek, Hungarian poet and translator Zita Izsó, German poet and artist Clara Cosima Wolff, Slovak poet Juliana Sokolová and Czech poet Luboš Svoboda,” says Polish poet Zofia Bałdyga, programme director of the Václav Burian Prize. The artists were selected by an international jury consisting of Zofia Bałdyga (PL), Petr Borkovec (CZ), Sabine Eschgfäller (DE), Mária Ferenčuhová (SK), István Vörös (HU) and Tomáš Tichák (honorary member for the Václav Burian Prize Committee).

After the announcement of the Poetry Prize and the Audience Award, the Wednesday evening will end at 8 pm with a performance by the international group Fekete Seretlek, which will present KAR – The Theatre of Objects and a concert based on Anna Karenina directed by Slovenian director Matija Solc.

Entrance to the poetry competition is free. Tickets for the musical-dramatic KAR performance can be purchased at the Olomouc Museum of Art box office or on the muo.cz website:

The programme is also accompanied by a Bedekr, which contains texts and profiles of all nominees. “The Bedecker is an important part of the Prize, because even after the end of a given year it remains a document of the current state of our perception of poetry and, ultimately, of poetry itself. All this in a cross-translation of the poems into all the languages represented at the Václav Burian Prize,” explains CENTRAL’s dramaturg Alexandr Jeništa.

PRIZE FOR THE KRAKOW DIRECTOR

The Václav Burian Prize Olomouc is part of the programme of the Central European Forum Olomouc and also includes the Prize for Contribution to Central European Dialogue. This year it will be awarded to Jacek Purchla, founder and long-time director of the International Centre for Culture in Krakow, art historian and economist. “The ceremony will take place on Friday, 18 October at 6 p.m. again at CENTRAL. The evening will include a conversation between Prof. Purchla and Prof. Zatloukal – two initiators and long-time directors of important Central European institutions. The moderator of their meeting will be art historian David Voda,” adds Jeništa.

Last year, the Slovak poet and prose writer Katarína Kucbelová was awarded the prize for poetry, while the Ukrainian writer Taras Prochasko won the prize for his cultural contribution to Central European dialogue. “The Václav Burian Prize is an exceptional Central European literary award established in 2015 and commemorates the legacy of the Olomouc-based Polonist, poet, journalist and translator Václav Burian (1959-2014). Alongside the Wrocław-based Central European Angelus Literary Award, awarded by the Wrocław House of Literature, it is the only cultural and literary prize conceived in such a regional manner. The Central European focus on poetry and live reading in original languages is absolutely unique in the international context, not only in the Czech Republic but also in the whole region,” explains the founder of the Prize, Olomouc poet David Voda.