István Turczi receives this year’s International Grand Prize for Literature of the Republic of Serbia in Bosnia
Once again, Hungarian literature receives a prestigious international recognition.
In the capital of the Bosnian Serb Republic, Banja Luka, during the International Literary Days held for the seventh time from September 16 to 18, 2022, as proposed by a professional jury of Serbian-Italian-American composition, István Turczi, József Attila Award-, Babérkoszorú Award-, and Prima Primissima Award-winning poet, translator, editor, university lecturer, Secretary-General of the Hungarian PEN Club, and president of the poetic department of the Hungarian Writers’ Association, will receive this year’s international literary award named Otvorena Knjiga – Open Book. The prestige of the prize is enhanced by the fact that among the four laureates so far is the Russian poet Vyacheslav Kupriyanov, recently nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. The professional justification of the jury highlights that Turczi’s book titled ‘Üresség’ (Emptiness) (Scolar, 2017, 2nd edition), which is a verse sequence based on a single, four-movement musical piece, ‘rises to the heights of T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets with a simultaneous, virtuoso presentation of the strength and fragility of human existence condensed into twenty-four hours.’ In addition to the prize money and a sculpture by the famous Serbian sculptor Sonja Bikic, István Turczi has be elected an honorary member of the Serbian Writers’ Association, and a commemorative edition of the Hungarian author’s selected collection of poems translated by Illés Fehér will be published for next year’s festival.
István Turczi, Hungarian poet and writer, winner of the József Attila Award, the Babérkoszorú Award and the Prima Primissima Award, literary translator, editor, university professor, literary organizer, founding editor-in-chief of the Parnassus poetry journal and publishing house. From the 1980s onwards, he regularly publishes volumes of poetry, novels, dramas, and radio plays. As the editor-in-chief of Parnassus, he is committed to finding young talent and helping established authors have publication opportunities. In addition to his creative work, he is an active literary organiser.
