Bajović, Koprivica and Pavićević winners of "Pledge"

This year's winners of the "Zaloga" prize awarded by the "Vladimir Mijušković" Literary Association are poet Spasoje Bajović, for poetry, singer-songwriter Marinko Pavićević, for a poetic and musical vision of the homeland, and Branko A. Koprivica, for nonfiction. That was the decision of the three-member jury consisting of Svetozar Bajović, Jovan Drašković and Radovan Damjanović, president.

The competition received 18 proposals for 12 candidates. Creators from the diaspora, more specifically from Miami (USA), also applied for the "Pledge" award, which made the organizers and the jury especially happy, and the National Community of Montenegrins of Croatia also participated as a proposer.

Bajović published the poetry collections "Apples of Stone", "Mountainous Thirst", "Wind Rope", "Unfaithful Glow" and "Mist Ring", which the university professors proposed for the "Pledge" award.

"Bajović's refined poetic expression, shaped by previous poetry collections, undoubtedly reaches its highest aesthetic range in this one. We are convinced of this by the structure of the poetry collection, conceived on the existence of poetic units in which Bajović secured a privileged place for the theme of homeland, i.e. personal dependence on the experience of collective life. In the content of the collection, the most obvious is the love for the native roots, for every appearance in it, from grass to man. , but that love that was repelled through the power of verses that hurt until eternity", stated in the explanation of the decision.

Branko A. Koprivica, who has been engaged in journalism since 1973, is the recipient of several social awards, including two awards for journalism. He published more than ten books of a monographic-publicistic nature. For four decades, he has been a contributor to numerous newspapers and magazines in which he has published or is currently publishing numerous texts on culture, history, ethnology, education, folk creativity... As a permanent-external collaborator, he is engaged in the CANU projects "Montenegro onomastic complex" and "Life and folk customs in Montenegro".

As part of the first project, Korivica processed about 4.500 onomastic units from the Banjan and Oputni Rudin areas. In Montenegro and abroad, he participated in about fifteen scientific gatherings, where he presented reports on the history of Montenegro and neighboring Yugoslav countries. He published several translations from the Macedonian language.

Marinko Pavićević has been engaged in canoeing for more than four decades, which is why he is the most notable, both in Montenegro and abroad. Native motifs and themes dominate his songs. So far, he has published five books - "heavenly bottom", "Monk's talisman", "Saint without halo", "Seal of the righteous" and "Crown of stone", while two more books are in preparation ("Humoroids on the brain", aphorisms and novel in verses "Gorčina Gorčinova"). He is a participant in numerous literary meetings, but he is mostly present at music festivals, as a participant or as a member of the jury. As a songwriter and composer, he has won numerous awards at festivals in Montenegro and the region. The "Pledge" awards, which consist of a cash portion and a unique plaque, will be awarded on December 14, at the closing evening of the Nikšić Literary Meetings.