Martin Ryšavý’s novel Vrač receives the prestigious 2012 Bank Austria Literaris award
After scooping both the Magnesia Litera (2011) and the Josef Škvorecký Award (2011), Ryšavý’s novel Vrač (Witch Doctor) was also awarded the Bank Austria Literaris 2012 prize and will be thus translated into German.
Martin Ryšavý won the prose category. The Czech titles – aside from Vrač it was also Sylva Fischerová’s Pasáž (Passage Way) and Ondřej Buddeus‘ 55 007 znaků včetně mezer (55,007 Characters With Spaces) - were nominated by a local jury, composed of the head of the literary section of the Arts and Theatre Institute Viktor Debnár and the translator Kristina Kallert. The winners of the two categories – prose and poetry – were selected by the main, Vienna-based jury out of the overall fourty-two works nominated from sixteen European countries.
The award ceremony took place during the Leipzig Book Fair. As part of the prize, a German translation of the title will be published by Wieser Verlag. On this occasion, the Czech publisher Revolver Revue has announced the second edition of the book.
The literary award Bank Austria Literaris, bestowed for the fourth time this year, is given to authors from Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe. The jury evaluated literary works within the prose and poetry categories from 16 European countries. Martin Ryšavý won the prose category with his novel Vrač. The awarded title will be published in a German translation by the Viennese publisher Wieser Verlag in autumn 2012.
“I’m very pleased that the book will be published in German and would like to thank Taťjana Langášková from the Czech Centre in Vienna and the translator Kristina Kallert for submitting my book for this award,“ says Martin Ryšavý. „I’m glad there’s such an award since I had no clue about its existence so it’s been a pleasant surprise. I have been also amazed by the Leipzig Book Fair, where the Bank Austria Literaris award ceremony took place. I’ve never seen so many booksellers in one place before.“
“Other Czech studies specialists and publishers from several countries – aside from the US it is also Poland and Spain – have been considering the publishing of Ryšavý’s novel. I’m pleased that an edition aimed for the German-speaking markets is due in a couple of months. Martin Ryšavý is without a doubt an extraordinary figure of contemporary prose,“ says the editor-in-chief of Revolver Revue Terezie Pokorná.
Together with the first foreign language edition of Vrač, Revolver Revue also plans to bring out the second Czech edition of this now sold out work and also plans an author audio book, to be distributed as a supplement of the magazine Revolver Revue.
