Guram Dochanashvili, the Georgian author of “The First Garment”, was awarded the Saba Literary Prize on 4th of July for his contribution to the development of Georgian literature. The 71-year-old Dochanashvili received the 10,000GEL prize in a ceremony on Marjanishvili, in downtown Tbilisi, which marked the 8th edition of what has become Georgia’s most important literary prize.
Named after the 17th century Georgian writer Sulkhan Saba Orbeliani, the prize was established in 2003 at the initiative of TBC bank, the Georgian Pen Club and the broadcasting company Rustavi 2. The total amount of 80,000GEL is divided among eight different category, the most relevant being the contribution to Georgia literature won by Dochanashvili.
Every nomination winner gets 4 000 GEL, except special prize, rewarded with 10 000 GEL in special nomination “Award for contribution to the development of Georgian literature.” The Other nominations are: The Best Debut of The Year, The Best Essay and Publicist work, The Best Translation, The Best Play, The Best Short Story Collection, The Best Poetry Collection, The Best Novel. The symbol of Saba is a silver feather, that goes to the winner with 4 000 GEL.
There are at least ten publishing houses in Tbilisi, three of them, such as “Siesta”, “Diogene” and “Sulakauri Publishing House”, are the leaders on Georgian publishing market. Every publishing house had presented their authors’ books, circulated in 2009. The special jury, remaining anonymous before the ceremony day, selects “the bests among the bests” for the short lists of every nomination. And then the same jury, completed with five members, votes and brings to light the winner.
Saba Award is very important event for every publishing house in Tbilisi. They consider that this literary project maintains new published books circulation and sometimes provokes them to be a bestseller for years. The author, his book and the name of publishing houses are indivisibles from each other. In this year the most successful authors of the Saba Award were presented by publishing house “Diogene”.
To Nino Guruli’s mind, the PR manager of Diogene, the major dignity of Saba Award is to encourage contemporary authors and help modern literature to develop in a right way.
“We are the big supporters of translation in Georgian. Unfortunately our author didn’t get Saba’s silver feather in this nomination, but we have the laureates in the other nominations, such as The Best Play, The Best Story Collection, The Best Poetry Collection and The Best Debut. It’s a big success for our publishing house.”
The prose writer Beso Khvedelidze is the laureate of Saba 2003 in thenomination the best story collection. Also he is the director of the publishing house “Saunje”.
“After Saba winning every book is predicted to popularity.” He says. “Unfortunately, modern literature isn’t popular among our society, especially contemporary poetry. If not a Saba Award, majority of Georgian bestsellers would be “rotten” on the book-shelf.”
Definitely, Saba is the most costly literary project in Georgia. The PR manager Maia Dzirkvelishvili says, that they do their best not to turn down Saba Award’s rating among society.
The winners of Saba 2010 are: The Best Debut – Maka Ldokoneni “Sweet Stories” (Publishing house “Diogene”), The Best Translation - Manana Garibashvili “Poetry of Cutulus” (”Logos”), The Best Play – Tamar Bartaia “The Major Role” (“Diogene”), The Best Essay – Zurab Karumidze – “The Life of Jazz” (“Siesta”), The Best Story Collection – Kote Jandieri “Cinderella’s Night” (“Diogene”), The Best Poetry Collection – Zviad Ratiani “Negative” (“Diogene”) The Best Novel – Naira Gelashvili “The First Circles”(“Caucasian House”).
And the special award went to Guram Dochanashvili, the lovely author for every generation.
P.S. The article has been written on July 5 of 2010.
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