10 Finalists in Anasoft Litera 2024 Bring Mostly Works of Veteran Authors

Ten nominated books for the Anasoft Litera literary prize were selected from more than 140 reviewed works of prose. The finalists will be presented at the litera fest, which will take place from June 17 to 20, 2024, in Bratislava and online, with the winner receiving a prize of 10,000 euros from ANASOFT.

The Anasoft Litera 2024 shortlist and its laureate will be decided in the nineteenth year by: Associate Professor in Aesthetics Marek Debnár, literary scholar and critic Mária Klapáková, literary scientist and publicist Radoslav Passia, literary historian and theorist Karel Piorecký, translator, and promoter of Slovak literature Júlia Sherwood.

According to the expert jury, "The Anasoft Litera 2024 shortlist features predominantly works by well-known authors who test their creative processes in the context of their previous works and within the broader framework of our literature. The selection is dominated by novels and novellas, with short story collections being in the minority. The pandemic theme holds an important place, though it is neither central nor self-serving, but forms the backdrop for a more complex reflection of contemporary, significantly polarized Slovak society. The represented works cover a wide range of authorial approaches, including experimental writing, traditional storytelling, social satire, and autobiographical diary entries. Several works drew inspiration from literary and film classics and the possibilities of popular genres. The jury was often impressed by the authors' ability to perceive the humorous aspects of reality and the connection between the visual and textual aspects of the books."

The expert jury reviewed over 140 works of prose. After discussions focused on their quality, the following titles were selected in alphabetical order by the authors' last names:

• Cabala, Lukáš: Spomenieš si na Trenčín? (Artforum 2023)
• Dušek, Dušan: Deti v daždi (Vydavateľstvo SLOVART 2023)
• Gibová, Ivana: Babička© (Vlna 2023)
• Kováčik, Juraj: Bod zlomu (Vydavateľstvo SLOVART 2023)
• Kucbelová, Katarína: Modrosleposť (Vydavateľstvo SLOVART 2023)
• Kuľková, Miroslava: Hotel Balkán (KK Bagala 2023)
• Pupala, Richard: Druhý čierny zošit (Lindeni 2023)
• Puškáš, Jozef: Vivat akadémia, zhohom Čechov (Vydavateľstvo Orman 2023)
• Rozenbergová, Vanda: Storočie (Vydavateľstvo SLOVART 2023)
• Štefánik, Ondrej: Siroty (TATRAN 2023)

Among the nominated works is a prose piece by Ondrej Štefánik, who won the Anasoft Litera prize in 2017 for the novel Som Paula, as well as the two-time winner of the Readers' Award from 2007 and 2017 – Dušan Dušek. Most of the authors had their books in the shortlist of the literary prize in the past, except for Miroslava Kuľková, who debuted with the short story collection Hotel Balkán, and writer, screenwriter, and film critic Jozef Puškáš, whose nominated book Vivat akadémia, zhohom Čechov is his eleventh prose work.

The Anasoft Litera literary prize is awarded annually for the best original Slovak prose literary work or for the translation of an original prose literary work by authors who are primarily citizens of the Slovak Republic, and their works or translations of their works into Slovak are published in book form in the previous calendar year. If a prose work was not on the list of reviewed books in the last year, it is automatically included in the list for the following year.

Anasoft Litera proceeds in three rounds. In the first round, the jury selected ten prose works from all published books. In September, the so-called final five will be announced again on Rádio DEVÍN, from which the winning book will eventually be chosen. The laureate of the Anasoft Litera literary prize will receive a prize of 10,000 euros, awarded by the general partner, the software company ANASOFT.

The public will also decide on the prize, starting from June 1, 2024, in the online Readers' Award voting. The selected shortlist will be presented during the litera fest, which will take place from June 17 to 20, 2024, in Bratislava and online for viewers who cannot attend in person.