On 22 November, the 2023 Vladimir Bashev National Prize for Poetry was awarded to an author under 32 years of age. The official ceremony took place at the Vladimir Bashev Literary Office.
NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ gave financial support to the National Literary Museum, underwriting the fees of the jury members and the artistic design of the diplomas.
Poetess Ralitsa Raykova won the prize for her anthology, ‘Figures from Salt’, 2022, by Janet-45 Print and Publishing. She also received an artwork, provided by NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’.
Introduced in 1969 by Pulse newspaper, whose first editor-in-chief was Vladimir Bashev, the prize is awarded every two years for a published anthology of poems.
The jury was chaired by Georgi Konstantinov, and included members Nadia Popova, editor-in-chief of Slovoto Dnes [Word Today] newspaper; Atanas Kapralov, Director of the National Literary Museum; Dr Mariyana Kirova, chief keeper at NLM and head of the Vladimir Bashev Literary Office; and Valentina Radinska.
To date, more than 30 poets have received the Vladimir Bashev National Literary Prize.