Emerging author Beqa Adamashvili awarded EU Prize for Literature
Beqa Adamashvili has published literary works while also being involved in a career in advertising. Photo: EU Prize for Literature.
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Emerging young author Beqa Adamashvili has been unveiled among winners of the European Union Prize for Literature, marking Georgia’s first participation in the competition with a win.
Adamashvili, who has published his works and works full-time in advertising, is among 14 authors that claimed the honours in an announcement on Wednesday.
Presented by Tibor Navracsics, the European Commissioner for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, and Valer-Daniel Breaz, the Minister of Culture and National Identity of Romania, the list unveiled winners who will be formally distinguished in a Brussels awards ceremony in October.
Adamashvili, who was selected for his work Everyone Dies in this Novel, and the other 13 laureates will also receive a prize money of 5,000 EUR, while their entries will be published as part of a collection in French and English languages.
The EUPL 2019 winners are out! 'EUPL builds bridges among different European cultures removing the borders. It is a great opportunity for new writers to meet more readers and to converse each other through literature.' ???????????? #creativeeurope #europeforculture @europe_creative pic.twitter.com/TyZOW4AO4l
— EUPL (@EUPLPrize) May 23, 2019
The young Georgian author graduated from Tbilisi-based Caucasus University’s Faculty of Journalism and Social Science before publishing short stories on the web in 2009. He was also known among blogging groups and readers. His novel debut came in 2014 with Bestseller, which became a local bestselling work.
Great sense of humour and deep knowledge of world literature combined with marketing and advertising skills makes Adamashvili’s prose hilarious and entertaining.
He very often uses allusions from classic literature and sometimes even shifts the famous characters into his works,” said a EU Prize for Literature profile for the young writer.
Adamashvili was featured among 11 Georgian authors at Berlin’s Stadt Land Buch literary festival in 2016, when Georgia was welcomed as official Guest Country of Honour for the event.
The EU competition aimed to highlight authors who had previously published their works but had not reached a wider audience. A Georgian author was represented in the contest, in its 11th edition, for the first time.
National juries selected winners in 14 respective countries for the Prize that aims to highlight “the wealth of contemporary European literature” and has distinguished over 100 authors from more than 40 countries so far. The awards are also supported by Creative Europe, a programme for supporting the cultural sector across countries.