Winners of Georgia’s leading literary contest have been announced, honouring authors, translators and critics for their efforts in developing the country's literature.
The Saba Literary Prize was founded in 2003 and is a major literary contest that revealing best creations and authors of prose, poetry, documentary writing and more.
Winners of this year's Saba Literary Prize were revealed on Sunday; 10 laureates were awarded prizes for their work over the past year.
Among the winners was American author and playwright Lyn Coffin, whose translation of the 12th Century Georgian epic The Knight in the Panther's Skin was singled out as the Best Foreign Translation of Georgian Work.
Poet and playwright Lyn Coffin was awarded for her translation of the 12th Century poem 'The Knight in the Panther's Skin'. Photo by N.Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
Published by Poezia Press in Tbilisi, Coffin said her work was the first "rhythmic, metaphoric, poetic translation" into English of the major medieval poem by Shota Rustaveli.
She noted she had received help of Georgian scholars for her translation project and had "translated as a poet" in contrast to earlier efforts by other translators that just translated words or meaning.
The American poet is the author of more than 20 books in fiction, drama and poetry. Her work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories anthology.
In a novel approach to this year's awards, readers determined winners of the Literary Debut of the Year prize by voting on social media.
The public's favourite prize went to Salome Makaridze for her poetry debut Us. Film director Nana Ekvtimishvili (The Pear-Tree Meadow) and novelist Iunona Guruli (Diagnosis) were also awarded. The full list of winners of the Saba Literary Prize 2016 are:
The jury panel is changed for every year's competition and involves previously awarded Saba Literary Prize winners.