The Representative Office of the Republic of Srpska in Belgrade held a ceremony today to present formally the 2022 Izvor literary awards for the most beautiful poem and most beautiful story about the homeland to the recipients of the tenth jubilee competition organized by this office and Žrnov magazine.

The Izvor award for the most beautiful story about homeland was presented to Marijana Jovanović from Serbia for her story Ognjište (the Hearth), and that for the most beautiful poem to two authors – Jelena Vujanović from the Republic of Srpska for her Prekinuta pjesma (Interrupted Poem) and Radoslav Vučković from Serbia for his poem Rodna kuća (Birth House).

The Head of the Republic of Srpska Representation in Serbia, Mlađen Cicović, presented the award, which consists of certificates and monetary amounts, to the most successful authors-participants in this competition, and the awarded works will be published in the next issue of Žrnov magazine in June.

After the presentation, Cicović expressed his satisfaction that this literary award presented by the Representation and Žrnov magazine, had become traditional, and noted that this year the jury could not decide and thus gave the award for the most beautiful poem about the homeland to two authors.

‘It is a reward for everything you do on the preservation of culture, tradition, language, alphabet, because for us in the Representative Office, all activities that are primarily aimed at preserving Serbian national identity, culture, tradition, customs, language, and our religion are of particular importance’, Cicović said.

Those activities, he added, are aimed primarily at what is most important for the Serbian people, which is unity and sobornost, and that is why it is a special joy to have authors from the Republic of Srpska and Serbia and Montenegro, North Macedonia, the diaspora take part in the competition.

Thus, we also contribute to everything that will result in us all together understanding that, regarding culture, tradition, customs, language and alphabet, there are no borders, border crossings. That wherever our people live, it is one ethnic, linguistic and cultural space’, Cicović said.

He noted that all these activities were aimed at the Representation contributing to the strengthening of relations between Serbs from the Republic of Srpska and from Serbia, but also to the unity and sobornost of the entire Serbian people, wherever they live.

Cicović said that at this year’s International Belgrade Book Fair in October, the Republic of Srpska Representation and Žrnov magazine would also present a collection of the best works in the ten years of the Izvor literary award. That will be an opportunity not only to present comprehensively the creativity stimulated by this competition to the cultural public of Serbia and Srpska, but also to have works of other arts, visual and musical, dedicated to homeland as a literary theme.

The competition received 97 works from Serbia, Srpska, Montenegro and the diaspora, including two authors from North Macedonia and Bulgaria.

The jury consisted of Jelena Ćirić, Milan Mihajlović and Biljana Stanisavljević, who was last year’s award recipient for the story.

Source: Republic of Srpska Representative Office in Serbia-Palelive.com-Srna

Photo: Palelive.com-Srna