The finalists of the 'Big Book' prize have been announced
On the 26th of May, the names of the writers shortlisted for the 'Big Book' literary prize were announced. 13 authors have been shortlisted. Two of the shortlisted books were entered into the competition as manuscripts: Mariam Petrosyan's 'The House Where'and Andrei Baldin's 'The Extension of the Full Stop'.
The authors shortlisted were Olga Slavnikova ('Love in the Seventh Carriage'), Vladimir Orlov ('The Kamerger Alleyway'), Boris Khazanov ('Yesterday's Eternity'), Leonid Zorin ('The Wretched Globe'), Andrei Volos ('Victor'), Leonid Yuzefovich ('Cranes and Dwarves'), Alla Marchenko ('Akhmatova: a Life'), Boris Eseev ('Tramp shop'), Maria Galina ('The Back of Beyond'), Aleksander Terekhov ('The Stone Bridge'), Vadim Yarmolinets ('The Lead Balloon: Jericho - 86-89). In addition, two manuscript works were included on the list. Mariam Petrosyan's 'The House Where'and Andrei Baldin's 'The Extension of the Full Stop'.
The shortlisted was drawn up by the 'Big Book's' expert panel of judges, headed by the writer Mikhail Butovym. The three winners will be chosen by the prize's jury, which is made up of more than one hundred people. They are professional writers, journalists, producers and entrepreneurs. The winners will be announced in November.
'This year the panel of experts found it very difficult to decide on the finalists, since the longlist was made up of many equally solid and well-written works, amongst which there was no clear leader, as Vladimir Makanin's novel 'Asan' was last year", noted the director of the prize, Georgii Urushadze.
Readers are also allowed to decide on their favourite work. There will be a public vote on the prize's website over the next two months. The books that receive the most votes will be awarded a reader's commendation.
In 2009 there were 384 submissions to the competition, the authors' birthplaces ranging across the whole of Russia - from Kaliningrad to the Far East. Works written by Russian emigre authors were also nominated for the award. 48 works made it onto the longlist.
The total prize money for the 'Big Book' is 5.5 million roubles and is second only to the Nobel Prize for Literature. The author whose work wins will receive an award to the tune of 3 million roubles, second prize is 1.5 million roubles and third prize is 1 million. Novels, collections of poetry and short stories, documentary fiction works and memoirs can all be submitted to the 'Big Book Prize' if written in Russian. The founders of the prize are the Centre for the Support of Russian Literature, The RAN Institute of Russian Literature, The Federal Agency of Press and Mass Communication, The Federal Agency of Culture and Cinematography, The Russian Book Union, The Russian Association of Libraries, 'Gasprom-Media', the Russian State Television and Radio Company, the news agency ITAR-TASS and a whole host of media companies.
'Big Book' was founded in 2005. In 2006 Dmitry Bykov won first prize for his book 'Pasternak' from the series 'ZhZL', in 2007 Liudmila Ulitskaya won with her novel 'Daniel Stein, translator', and in 2008 Vladimir Makanin won for his novel about Chechnya 'Asan'.