European Union Prize for Literature (2009)

The names of twelve European authors to receive the first ever European Union Prize for Literature have been announced by the European Commission. The Hungarian winner is Noémi Szécsi's novel, Communist Monte Cristo.

The aim of the prize is "to put the spotlight on the creativity and diverse wealth of Europe’s contemporary literature, to promote the circulation of literature within Europe and encourage greater interest in non-national literary works." The prize will be granted in three phases, in the years 2009, 2010 and 2011, with 11 or 12 winners each time. By 2011, a winner will have been announced for each the 34 countries participating in the EU Culture Programme.

In order to select the 2009 winners, national juries were set up to choose a talent in the field of contemporary literature (fiction) in their country. The value of the Prize is a lump sum of 5 000 Euros for each winner. Additionally, measures will be also taken within the EU's Culture Programme to stimulate the translation of the winning authors' works. The prizes will be presented during an award ceremony in Brussels on 28 September.

The countries participating in the first edition 2009 of the award are:
Austria, Croatia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden.

The first twelve winners of the European Prize for Literature are:

AUSTRIA
Paulus Hochgatterer
Book awarded: Die Sü  e des Lebens (2006) – in English: the Sweetness of Life
Biography: Paulus Hochgatterer , born in 1961, lives as a writer and child therapist in Vienna. He has received diverse literary prizes and commendations, most recently the Elias Canetti Stipend of the town of Vienna, and is the author of several novels and story collection.

CROATIA
Mila Pavicevic
Book awarded: Djevojčica od leda i druge bajke (2006) – in English: Ice Girl and Other Fairy-tales
Biography: Mila Pavićević was born in Dubrovnik on the 4 th of July 1988. She reads Comparative literature and Greek language and literature at the Zagreb University. She received several literary awards for young writers in Croatia.

FRANCE
Emmanuelle Pagano
Book awarded: Les Adolescents troglodytes (2007)
Biography: Emmanuelle Pagano was born in Aveyron in September 1969. She lives today in Ardèche, with three children, born in April 1991, September 1995 and May 2003. She graduated in Fine Arts, and has done university researches in the field of esthetics in the cinema as well as the multimedia.

HUNGARY
Szécsi Noémi
Book awarded: Kommunista Monte Cristo (2006) – In English Communist Monte Cristo
Biography: Szécsi Noémi (1976), writer and translator. She graduated in Finnish and English in Budapest, and studied cultural anthropology in Helsinki. She published her first novel, Finno-Ugrian Vampire in 2002, reprinted in 2003 due to its success. The script based on the novel was shortlisted by the workshop of Sundance Institute . Communist Monte Cristo , published in 2006 – besides being a historical novel and a saga of a family – is an artistic interpretation of the history of communist idea in Hungary based on elaborate research.

IRELAND
Karen Gillece
Book awarded: Longshore Drift (2006)
Biography: Karen Gillece was born in Dublin in 1974. She studied Law at University College Dublin and worked for several years in the telecommunications industry before turning to writing full-time. She was short listed for the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award in 2001, and her short stories have been widely published in literary journals and magazines. Longshore Drift has been translated into German, and is published by Verlagsgruppe Random House.

ITALY
Daniele Del Giudice
Book Awarded: Orizzonte mobile (2009) - in English : Movable Horizon
Biography: Daniele Del Giudice was born in Rome in 1949. The first novel he published was Lo stadio di Wimbledon (Einaudi 1983). This book was followed by Atlante occidentale (Einaudi, 1985), a novel about changes of perceptions and feelings, an anthropological mutation caused by science and widespread technology, set in Geneva in the enormous nuclear accelerator in the heart of Europe where a young physicist works on matters tiniest elements and where new languages and objects are created. This attention to the scientific sector, to innovations in daily behaviour and shared perceptions, is also present in later novels and short stories such as Nel museo di Reims (Mondadori, 1989), Staccando l’ombra da terra (Einaudi, 1994), and Mania (Einaudi, 1997), Daniele del Giudice’s books have won many awards: the Viareggio Prize in 1983, the 1995 Bagutta Prize, the Selezione Campiello Prize in 1995 and in 1997 and, in 2002, the Accademia dei Lincei award for fiction. In addition to his novels, Del Giudice has published essays on Italo Svevo, Thomas Bernhardt, Robert. L. Stevenson and Primo Levi. He lives in Venice, where he teaches Theatrical Literature at the Theatre Faculty of the IUAV, the University Institute of Architecture.

LITHUANIA
Laura Sintija Černiauskaitė
Book Awarded: Kvėpavimas į marmurą (2006) - In English Breathing into Marble
Biography: Prose writer, playwright. She was born in Vilnius, on December 8, 1976. In 1994 she left Vilnius Senvage School and in 1996 – enrolled into Vilnius University Department of Extramural Studies to study the Lithuanian language and literature. In 1998-1999 she worked as a freelance publicist at magazine Malonumas , in 2000 – as a language editor at children magazine Genys , in 2001-2002 as a journalist at magazine for young mother Tavo vaikas. In 1993 she won the republic competition of young philologists and was awarded with 1st rank diploma for the best pupil prose. In 1994 she also won a competition of the First Book organized by the Writers Union. In 2001 a play Liberate the Golden Foal (Išlaisvink auksinį kumeliuką) won a play competition organized by The Fairies Theatre and Vilnius University Philology Department. In 2003 a prose and plays selection Liučė Skates (Liučė čiuožia) is published and appears among 12 best books of the year selected by the experts of Lithuanian Literature Institute. The same year play Liučė Skates is staged in a National Youth theatre. In 2004 Liučė Skates (Liučė Čiuožia) wins a first prize among 300 participators in an international play fair Theatretrefen organized in Berlin. Since 2004 – the member of Lithuanian Writers‘ Union

NORWAY
Carl Frode Tiller
Book Awarded: - Innsirkling (2007) - in English : Encirclement
Biography: Carl Frode Tiller (born January 4, 1970 in Namsos) is a author, historian and musician. His works are in Nynorsk (lit. "New Norwegian"), one of the two official Norwegian standard languages . Tiller debuted in 2001 with the novel Skråninga (Downward Slope), which was recognized as the best initial work of the year with the Tarjei Vesaas' Debute Prize . Downward Slope was nominated for the Brageprisen (the Brage Prize is a juried award). In November 2007 Tiller was awarded the Brageprisen for his novel Innsirkling (Encirclement). In the fall of 2007 Innsirkling received the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature and was nominated for the premiere Scandinavian literature prize, the Nordic Council's Literature Prize .

POLAND
Jacek Dukaj
Book Awarded: LÓD (2007) – In English ICE
Biography: Jacek Dukaj (born in 1974) is one of Poland’s most interesting contemporary prose writers, whose books are always eagerly anticipated events. Dukaj studied philosophy at the Jagiellonian University . He successfully debuted at the age of 16 with a short story Złota Galera ( Golden Galley ). He is known for the complexity of his books, and it is often said that a single short story of Dukaj contains more ideas than many other writers put into their books in their lifetime. Popular themes in his works include the technological singularity , nanotechnology and virtual reality , and because of this his books often can be classified as hard science fiction .

PORTUGAL
Dulce Maria Cardoso.
Book Awarded: Os Meus Sentimentos (2005 )
Biography: Dulce was born in Trás-os-Montes, in 1964, in the same bed where both her mother and her grandmother were born. She regrets the lack of memories related with her journey, in Vera Cruz, to Angola. From her childhood she remembers the mango tree in the backyard, the sea and the involving space that shaped her soul. She returned to Portugal in 1975. Later, she graduated in the Law Faculty, in the University of Lisbon; she wrote screenplays and spent some time with uselessness . Dulce also wrote short stories. She has faith, a family and a pocket full of friends. She kept on writing and enjoying uselessness . She lives in Lisbon. Her premiere novel, Campo de Sangue , published in 2002 and written with the support of a Fund of Literary Creation, from the Portuguese Culture Ministry, was distinguished with the Grand Prize “ Acontece de Romance ”.

SLOVAKIA
Pavol Rankov
Book Awarded: Stalo sa prvého septembra (alebo inokedy) (2008) - In English It Happened on September the First (or whenever)
Biography: Pavol Rankov (b. 01.09.1964 Poprad, Slovakia)
Pavol Rankov is a writer of prose fiction, essayist, journalist, information scientist and university pedagogue, after completing his secondary schooling in Bratislava studied library science at the Philosophical Faculty of Bratislava's Comenius University (1983-1987). He worked as a methodologist in the Slovak National Library in Martin (1987-1990) and in the Slovak Pedagogic Library in Bratislava (1991-1992). From 1993 he has worked at the Department of Library Science and Scientific Information at Comenius University in Bratislava. He participates in projects with Slovak Radio. He lives in Bratislava.

SWEDEN
Helena Henschen
Book Awarded: I skuggan av ett brott (2004). In English The Shadow of a Crime
Biography: Helena Henschen was born in 1940 and raised in Stockholm. She has an artistic background and has worked as a graphic designer. Henschen has both written and illustrated children's books and she was one of the founders of the famous Swedish design company Mah-Jong . Os Meus Sentimentos (2005 )
Biography: Dulce was born in Trás-os-Montes, in 1964, in the same bed where both her mother and her grandmother were born. She regrets the lack of memories related with her journey, in Vera Cruz, to Angola. From her childhood she remembers the mango tree in the backyard, the sea and the involving space that shaped her soul.
She returned to Portugal in 1975. Later, she graduated in the Law Faculty, in the University of Lisbon; she wrote screenplays and spent some time with uselessness . Dulce also wrote short stories. She has faith, a family and a pocket full of friends. She kept on writing and enjoying uselessness . She lives in Lisbon.
Her premiere novel, Campo de Sangue , published in 2002 and written with the support of a Fund of Literary Creation, from the Portuguese Culture Ministry, was distinguished with the Grand Prize “ Acontece de Romance ”.

SLOVAKIA
Pavol Rankov
Stalo sa prvého septembra (alebo inokedy) (2008) - In English It Happened on September the First (or whenever)
Biography: Pavol Rankov (b. 01.09.1964 Poprad, Slovakia)
Pavol Rankov is a writer of prose fiction, essayist, journalist, information scientist and university pedagogue, after completing his secondary schooling in Bratislava studied library science at the Philosophical Faculty of Bratislava's Comenius University (1983-1987). He worked as a methodologist in the Slovak National Library in Martin (1987-1990) and in the Slovak Pedagogic Library in Bratislava (1991-1992). From 1993 he has worked at the Department of Library Science and Scientific Information at Comenius University in Bratislava. He participates in projects with Slovak Radio. He lives in Bratislava.

SWEDEN
Helena Henschen
I skuggan av ett brott (2004). In English The Shadow of a Crime
Biography: Helena Henschen was born in 1940 and raised in Stockholm. She has an artistic background and has worked as a graphic designer. Henschen has both written and illustrated children's books and she was one of the founders of the famous Swedish design company Mah-Jong .