Brussels, 09/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou unveiled the winners of the European Union Prize for Literature 2012 at the Frankfurt Book Fair on 9 October. Intended to reward new talent, the prize this year was awarded to the following 12 authors: Anna Kim (Austria), Lada Zigo (Croatia), Laurence Plazenet (France), Viktor Horvath (Hungary), Kevin Barry (Ireland), Emanuele Trevi (Italy), Giedra Radvilaviciute (Lithuania), Gunstein Bakke (Norway), Piotr Pazinski (Poland), Afonso Cruz (Portugal), Jana Benova (Slovakia) and Sara Mannheimer (Sweden). Congratulating the winners warmly, Vassiliou said: “Ensuring that literature crosses borders is not only good for authors and publishers, who want to reach new markets; it is also great for readers who have more choice and are exposed to works which they might never otherwise have come across. Our new Creative Europe programme will enable us to provide even more support for writers and cultural diversity in future.”
Created in 2009, the Prize for Literature is open to the 37 countries that participate in the EU Culture programme (in other words, the 27 EU member states plus Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia and Turkey). The 32 winners that exist to date have received financial assistance for the translation of their works into different languages. In total more than 100 translations (and 19 languages) have benefitted from this aid. (IL/transl.fl)