As announced by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, which awarded the National Literature Awards 2017, the Grand Literary Prize for Lifetime Achievement was bestowed upon Dionysis Kapsalis.

On Monday, January 7, Minister of Culture, Myrsini Zormpa, will meet with the award-winning writers to discuss the course of Greek literature, as well as broader issues related to books.   The meeting will be attended by the translators who were honored with the State Literary Translation Awards, the shortlist of authors who were very close to winning, representatives of the publishing houses of the award-winning writers, as well as members of the Committee for National Literary and Translation Awards.

The Prizes were awarded as follows:

• The Grand Literary Prize was granted to Dionysis Kapsalis for his overall contribution to letters.
• The National Prize for the Novel was granted by majority vote to Michalis Modinos for his work, “Equatoria” (Kastaniotis Publications)
• The National Prize for Short Story was granted by majority vote to Maria Kougioumtzi for her work, “Anything Can Happen by a Touch” (Kastaniotis Publications)
• The National Prize for Poetry, by majority vote, was shared by Stamatis Polenakis for his work, “Mercedes’s Roses” (Mikri Arktos Publications) and Chloe Koutsoumpeli for her work “The Merchants of the Other Land” (Gavrielidis Editions)
• The National Prize for Critical Essay was granted by majority vote to Pantelis Mpoukalas for his work, “When a Verb becomes a Name. “I Love” and Robustness of Poetic Language” (Agra Publications)
• The National Prize for Witness, Biography and Travel Literature was granted by majority vote to Lydia Tricha for her work, “Charilaos Trikoupis” (Polis Editions)
• The National Prize for Debut Author, by majority vote, was shared by Danae Siozou for her work, “Useful Children’s Games (Antipodes Editions) and Oursoula Foskolou for her work, “The Sea Monster” (Kichli Editions).

The Special Award for Promotion of Dialogue on Socially Sensitive Issues was granted by majority vote to Aggeliki Sidira for her work, “Silver Alert” (Kedros Publicatons).

Additionally, the Committee unanimously decided to award a commendation to the literary journals “Panos Street” and “[Frmk].”  The Committee was comprised of professors: Mariliza Mitsiou (President), Professor at Munich University, Institute for Byzantine Studies, Byzantine Art History and Modern Greek Studies; Mary Leontsini (Vice President), Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, and; Michalis Chrysanthopoulos, Professor of General and Comparative Literature at the School of Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Also participating in the Committee were: authors Claire Mitsotaki, Kallia Papadaki, Pavlina Papouli, as well as critics Elena Maroutsou, Anna Afentoulidou and Kostas Karavidas.

Source: Κathimerini