OREANDA-NEWS. June 13, 2013. Winners of the National Book Award (NBA) 2013 which is considered to be the most prestigious project in the area of modern Azerbaijani literature and held under the main sponsorship of Bakcell – the First Mobile Operator and the Leading Mobile Internet Provider in Azerbaijan were announced. 

NBA was founded in 2009 by “Ali and Nino” publishing house and shortly after that drew a wide response in the public and media. The main purpose of the award is to draw attention of the public to Azerbaijan literature, reveal new literary works, stimulate literary creativity, and strengthen the public significance of literature in general. A total of 241 literary works were received during the contest, launched on August 28th 2012, 175 of which is written in prose, 58 in poetry, and 8 as fairy tales. 164 male and 77 female authors have submitted their works for the contest.  The youngest writer is 7 and the oldest is 86 years old. Literary works, written mostly by 20-25 year old authors, were received from all the regions of Azerbaijan.  Our compatriots from Turkey, Iran, Ukraine, Russia, USA, Germany, Sweden, Great Britain and Netherlands have also submitted their works for the contest.

A shortlist of 10 works, formed based on opinion of members of the Expert Council was provided to the Jury on March 15th 2013.  The Jury, which consists of well-known personalities, literature experts and intellectuals of Azerbaijan, has announced the winners of the contest during the event held on June 5th at Park Inn Hotel:

1st place winner Zakir Sadatl? 3000 AZN

2nd place winner P?rvin Nur?liyeva 2000 AZN

3rd place winner Malik Dursunov 1000 AZN

Moreover, 300 AZN was awarded to the author of the best tale Efsane Lach?n, 300 AZN to the best young writer Shahriyar Del Gerani and 300 AZN for the best poem Qeshem Necefzade.

NBA – 2013 will be remembered for yet another novelty. Thus, the winning works will be available in the form of regular books and also electronic books, readable by means of all electronic and mobile devices.
 
Bakcell CEO Mr. Richard Shearer, who participated in the Awards ceremony, has stated that Bakcell supports the development of literature and arts in Azerbaijan, and expressed high appreciation of the National Book Award, being one of the most important initiatives in this area: “Bakcell pays a lot of attention to history, culture and literature of Azerbaijan. During the announcement of the NBA winners last year, we have stated that starting from next year the books will be available in electronic form. In this era of fast technological progress, availability of books in electronic form is very important for growth of readership, and delivering literary works to a wider auditory of readers. This is a novelty for Azerbaijan, and Bakcell is very proud to be one of the pioneers in this area”.

Ms. Nigar Kocharli, the founder of NBA, has expressed her gratitude to Bakcell for supporting the biggest literary award, and especially mentioned the role of Bakcell in publishing the winning works in electronic form.

For more detailed information about the project, please visit official web and Facebook pages of Bakcell www.bakcell.com www.facebook.com/bakcell, or www.mkm.az and www.alinino.az