Olivera Nikolova Award for Best Children and Youth will be awarded

Today, on March 11, the birthday of the famous Macedonian runner Olivera Nikolova, the first to be celebrated without her physical presence, a literary award is established, which will be named after her name, and will be awarded for the best unpublished children and youth novel.

At today's press conference, Branka Bulgaria, director of publishing but « Ars Lamina », noted that with this award, the publishing house wants to preserve and continue the literary tradition left by Olivera Nikolova (1936-2024).

– Nikolova's contribution to Macedonian literature, and especially in the novel for Children and Youth is immeasurable. With her works she introduced authenticity, emotional depth and humanity, which today inspire generations of readers. Our mission is to continue this literary genre, give it new strength and encourage authors who will continue this important tradition. At a time when literature for children is adhered to among picture books and adult literature, our goal is to revitalize this genre and give it space to again be an important part of the contemporary Macedonian literary scene-Bulgaria told a news conference.

Olivera Forveziroska, editor of Ars Lamina and a member of the jury, said she hoped that with the establishment of this award at least a little we would pay back to Olivera Nikolova for everything she did for contemporary Macedonian literature.

According to Vesna Mojsova-Jepishevska, a professor at the Faculty of Philology, and a member of the jury, the introduction of this award will make a serious literary space in which they will go out for the authors and their new stories.

« I will be happy when only a few years, the shelf with the latest books for children and young people will be full of good books that will keep the child's true attention in the 21st century through good stories, » Mojsova-Cepishevska said.

Jagoda Mihajlovska-Georgieva, who is also a member of the jury this year, said it was a cruel that the award would be an incentive for established and young writers to meet young readers' expectations for new interesting and captivating books.

– Young people are looking to recognize themselves in characters, heroes they can trust. They want books close to their way of communicating, fun, close to their interests- says Mihajlovska-Georgieva.

The press conference was also attended by the daughter of the writer Olivera, Jana Andreevska, who spoke with a lot of emotions about her mother and expressed his mother, to establish a reward that would bear her name.

-My mother wanted to reveal new writers, new talents and very much wanted to encourage everyone to write. I am convinced that as this award is designed, it will contribute to what she advocated and thus she will be present among us for a long time – said Jana Andreevska.

The Olivera Nikolova Award will be awarded every year on March 11, and this first competition runs from today until June 11th. All adults who will send unpublished manuscript, written in Macedonian language and Cyrillic alphabet, have the right to participate. The manuscript should be 32 to 80 pages (from 2 to 5 copyrights), which will be submitted by the authors of the email address: (Email Protected)as a World or PDF format, with the designation: for the competition « Olivera Nikolova ». The award is a ransom and consists of a cash amount of 60,000 denars, a statue and publishing of the novel in a separate edition of the Ars Lamina House. The decision to win this year's award will be announced in September. Mt