Promotion of the World Poetry Day in cooperation with UNESCO

The Struga Poetry Evenings Festival (SPE), in cooperation with UNESCO, announce the competition for the international poetry award “Bridges of Struga” 2024 for the best debut book by a young author.

The Bridges of Struga award was established in 2003, as part of the extensive cooperation with UNESCO, on the occasion of the World Poetry Day – 21st of March, in an attempt to stimulate, promote and affirm works of poetry as one of the most significant creative expressions of humanity. Every year, the SPE and UNESCO celebrate this day together with official announcement of the names of the recipients of the “Golden Wreath” and the “Bridges of Struga” Awards.

Previous “Bridges of Struga” Award recipients are: Angelo V. Suárez (Philippines) 2004, Andrea Cote (Colombia) 2005, Marianna Geide (Russian Federation) 2006, Manua Rime  (Belgium) 2007, Antonia Novakovic (Croatia) 2008, Ousmane Sarrouss (Senegal) 2009, Siim Kera (Estonia) 2010, Hiroshi Taniuchi (Japan) 2011, François-Xavier Maigre (France) 2012, Nikolina Andova Shopova (Macedonia) 2013, Harry Man (Great Britain) 2014, Paula Bozalongo (Spain) 2015, Runa Svetlikova (Belgium) 2016, Goran Čolakhodžić (Croatia) 2017, Pauli Tapio (Finland) 2018, Monika Herceg (Croatia) 2019, Martina Strakova (Slovakia) 2020, Vladan Krečković (Serbia) 2021, Gerardo Masuccio (Italy) 2022 and Gavin Bradley (Ireland)

The competition is open until the 21th of February, 2024, by which date all books and entries must arrive at the Struga Poetry Evenings’ postal address, or in an electronic form, according to the conditions stated below.

Conditions for participation in the competition for the award:

• Debut books of young poets (no older than 35 years of age at the moment of publishing of the debut book.). The debut books must be published in the previous two years; (2022 and 2023)
• The candidates should send 3 copies of the book with which they enter the competition, as well as at least 7 poems from the same book translated in English, at the postal address of the Struga Poetry Evenings (P.O. box 111, 6330 Struga, Republic of North Macedonia) or through the National Commission of UNESCO of the member state. The books must arrive at the address of SPE no later than 21th of February, 2024. Alongside 3 copies of the book (in a printed and electronic format), English translations of 7 poems from the same book, the candidate should also send a short biography in English. The application should be submitted to the e-mail address of SPE struga@svp.org.mk (for added safety, the required documents should be also sent to spefestival@gmail.com). Furthermore, the candidates should also send the ISBN number together with the required materials;
• The National Commissions of UNESCO are invited to receive the applications and notify the Struga Poetry Evenings about the entries;
• The award includes a statuette, prize money and a publication of the book of the laureate in Macedonian language.
• The laureate will be announced on World Poetry Day, 21st of March 2024.
• The laureate will be invited to participate in this year’s edition of the International Poetry Festival “Struga Poetry Evenings” in Struga, North Macedonia, in late August 2024, where they will be presented with the award during the “Bridges” event.

Struga Poetry Evenings and UNESCO

 

Struga Poetry Evenings

Brakja Miladinovci 5
P.O. Box 111
6330 Struga
Republic of Macedonia
Tel +389 46 786 270
struga@svp.org.mk

spefestival@gmail.com
www.svp. org.mk