The European Union Prize for Literature celebrates emerging fiction writers in Europe and beyond. On 9 November, the EUPL 2021 Award Ceremony honoured the 13 laureates of the current edition of the Prize.

The consortium of the European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL) together with the European Commission organised the Award Ceremony of the 2021 edition of the EUPL. The ceremony took place at Flagey, in Brussels and was streamed online.

The organisers of the event decided to open the event to the public respecting the local public health measures against COVID-19.

EUPL: a symbol of access to cultural diversity

Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, welcomed the 13 laureates of the 2021 edition in the presence of Sabine Verheyen, Chairwoman of the Committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament and Dr. Vasko Simoniti, Minister for Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, representing the Slovenian Presidency of the European Council.

The European Prize for Literature exists to make sure that all Europeans have access to the cultural diversity that our continent has to offer. It is a symbol of the many concrete actions that the EU is doing to facilitate the circulation of books in Europe and beyond. With this prize, we want to make sure you, European writers, are visible and accessible. You have done the hard part: writing something beautiful, meaningful. Now, we want to make sure your work can reach everyone. We want it to bind us together.

Winners of the 2021 EUPL Awards

The representatives of the 3 European Institutions presented the EUPL 2021 award for their outstanding literary works to the 13 laureates.

• Tom Kuka (Albania)
• Aram Pachyan (Armenia)
• Georgi Bardarov (Bulgaria)
• Lucie Faulerová (Czech Republic)
• Sigrún Pálsdóttir (Iceland)
• Laura Vinogradova (Latvia)
• Lara Calleja (Malta)
• Gerda Blees (Netherlands)
• Frederico Pedreira (Portugal)
• Dejan Tiago Stanković (Serbia)
• Anja Mugerli (Slovenia)
• Maxim Grigoriev (Sweden)
• Amine Al Ghozzi (Tunisia)

The EUPL Consortium, was represented by

• Nina George, President of the European Writers’ Council (EWC)
• Peter Kraus vom Cleff, President of the Federation of European Publishers, (FEP)
• Jean-Luc Treutenaere, co-President of the European & International Booksellers Federation (EIBF)

10 of the 13 winners participated in the event while the remaining 3 winners sent video messages.

Background

National juries comprised of publishers, booksellers, authors and critics have selected the winners from each of the 13 countries participating this year. The Prize has been recognising emerging fiction writers from across Europe since 2009. Since its first year, the European Commission has given awards to 135 authors in 12 editions of the prize.

The competition is open to the 40 countries involved in the Creative Europe programme.  Each year, one third of the countries nominate a jury member, so every country is represented over a three-year cycle.