Ratković's poetry evenings in Bijelo Polje ended with the presentation of the "Risto Ratković" award to the poet Faiz Softić.
Laureate Softić said that he was proud of the award and that he would cherish it as long as he walked the earth, because it bears the name of a poet whose verses I feel through the trembling in my own chest.
"Risto Ratković knew that poetry is an open wound through which light enters, and if with this book, poems or even one verse I have managed to let a glimmer of light reach you, then my writing, my poetry have meaning. Because, what is a poet without a reader, a tree that does not leaf or rustle or a river that never meets the sea. That is why I accept this award not as a stamp at the end of the road or as a sign at a crossroads, a reminder that we need to continue, that we need to look for a new word, one that has not yet been spoken, one that may not even belong to me but is just coming from the future," said Softić.
The decision to award the "Risto Ratković" award to Softić was made by an international jury consisting of: Olga Vojičić Komatina, Damir Šabanović, Petar Matović, Darija Žilić and Dženan Kos.
Vojičić Komatina reminded that this year 42 books were submitted to the competition and that the jury had a really difficult task to choose the best. This confirms the quality of the book "Poems from Prison" by Faiz Softić.
"After reading 'Poems from Prison', one remembers them as layered and powerful testaments lyrically presented, but experienced through epic experience and dramatic endings, and through the eclecticism of all genres included in an intense emotional fusion. Before us, therefore, is a collection of poetry that surprises us with the mosaic interweaving of lyrical emotion, and the epic indication of the lived-out rich life of the lyrical subject, and the dramatic performativity of expression and image," said Vojičić Komatina.
Bonus video:
