Prague, June 15 (CTK) – Italian writer, translator, German studies scholar and essayist Claudio Magris will be the laureate of the Franz Kafka Prize this year, an international jury has decided in Prague, Daniela Uherkova, from the organising Franz Kafka Society, told journalists on Wednesday.
Magris was born in Trieste in 1939.
As Trieste was a part of the Habsburg monarchy before its demise in 1918, it is sometimes considered a town situated in Central Europe. Perhaps this has prompted Magris’s interest in the region.
Magris has made his mark with his text Danube that was published in 1986.
Magris has received a number of Italian and European literary awards.
Many of his books have also appeared in Czech.
Franz Kafka Prize, the first international literary prize awarded in the Czech Republic, was launched in 2001.
Its previous winners were Philip Roth, Ivan Klima, Peter Nadas, Harold Pinter, Haruki Murakami, Yves Bonnefoy, Arnost Lustig, Peter Handke, Vaclav Havel, John Banville, Amos Oz, Yen Lian-ke, Eduardo Mendoza, Elfriede Jelinek and Daniela Hodrova.
The prize is named after Franz Kafka (1883-1924), a world-known Prague German-language writer of Jewish origin.
The laureate receives a bronze statue of Franz Kafka and 10,000 dollars.
