The shortlist for NIN's award for the best novel of the year included the novels of six authors, including previous winners Goran Petrović and Vladan Matijević, while three previous laureates dropped out of the competition.
NIN's prize could be awarded to the novels "What you always want" by Gordana Čirjanić (Narodna knjiga), "Very little light" by Vladan Matijević (Agora, Zrenjanin), "We are different" by Veselin Marković (Pillars of culture), "Ms. Olga" Radovan-Belog Marković (Euro-Giunti), "Under the peeling ceiling" by Goran Petrović (NID Company Novosti) and "Twin Stone" by Zoran Petrović (Geopoetics).
The winner will be announced on January 17, and the award will be presented on January 26 in the Belgrade City Assembly, RTS reported.
The jury, chaired by Vasa Pavković, received 130 novels to read, of which 30 were included in the broadest selection, and 16 in the wider selection.
Among the books in the widest selection were the works of previous NIN award winners David Albahari (Mamac, 1996), Milovan Danojlić (Liberators and traitors, 1997) and Svetislav Basara (The rise and fall of Parkinson's disease, 2006), and only Goran Petrović, who was awarded in 2000 for "Sitničrnica 'Kod srečne ruke'" and Vladan Matijević.
Ugričić: The award does not give legitimacy to the writer
The awarding of the NIN award for 2010 was also marked by Sreten Ugričić's request that his novel "Unknown Hero", published by Laguna, be withdrawn from the competition, because he believes that "this kind of NIN award, as it has generally been for the last twenty years, does not give legitimacy to the writer, but the writer gives legitimacy to such an award, if he agrees to participate".
The SEE.cult portal reminds us that in a letter to the editors of "NIN" and the publisher, the well-known writer stated that the NIN's award has a crucial effect on the canonization of contemporary Serbian creativity, and since the novel is a dominant and privileged genre, on the articulation of the overall representation of literature and its status on the cultural and public scene.
Stating that such an order encourages conformity and self-pity instead of truthfulness, self-awareness, responsibility, rational criticism and openness, and that it is not able to produce meaning, but unwillingly consumes it, indulges in prejudice, low taste, petit bourgeois, mediocrity, dullness and xenophobia, Ugričić added that Slobodan Milošević and his regime were possible and real in such and such an order.
Ugričić called on other writers to show that they understand why it is important and necessary to refuse participation in the competition.
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