Winners of Jerzy Giedroyc Literary Prize Announced. Identities of Top Two Winners to Remain Secret Until It Is Safe
Reform.news · 7 November 2026, 22:45
https://reform.news/en/winners-of-jerzy-giedroyc-literary-prize-announced-identities-of-top-two-winners-to-remain-secret-until-it-is-safe/The 15th anniversary ceremony of the Jerzy Giedroyc Literary Prize took place today at the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk.
The literary celebrations began yesterday with an evening featuring poet and publisher Dzmitry Strotsau. Today’s programme included a series of events, among them meetings with authors and book-signing sessions with Giedroyc Prize finalists Aliaksandr Karnaukh, Dzianis Trusau and Artsiom Shukanau.
The official ceremony began at 7 p.m., hosted by Krystsina Drobysh.
The ceremony opened with a minute of silence in memory of the victims of today’s terrorist attack in Kraków, as well as Belarusians associated with culture and the arts who died this year.
Empty chairs bearing portraits of imprisoned writers stood in the hall during the ceremony. There was also a special empty chair dedicated to manuscripts lost in places of detention, the true number of which is impossible even to imagine.
At least 19 writers and other literary figures are imprisoned, along with at least 115 cultural figures, Belarusian PEN chair Tatsiana Niadbai reminded the audience during her speech. She added that “every book that nevertheless reaches its readers is a kind of heroic achievement. And readers who seek out and find these books help keep the Belarusian language alive and allow us to continue speaking to one another.”
The shortlisted books were presented to the audience, the jury delivered its remarks, and three winners were announced.
The jury awarded first and second place to works submitted to the competition under concealed identities. For security reasons, the authors’ real names and the actual titles of their books are not yet being publicly disclosed.
First place went to a book submitted under the pseudonym Aliaksandr Kastsiukovich and the cover title “Lirnik” (“The Lyre Player”). The jury honoured the book “for its exceptional command of language and profound empathy.”
Second place went to a book submitted under the cover title “Tsieslia Zhytstsia” (“The Carpenter of Life”) by an author using the pseudonym Siarhei Dubautsevich. The book was recognised “for its synthesis of documentary and literary writing and its fruitful contribution to the development of Belarusian research-based prose.”
Third prize went to Artsiom Shukanau for his novel “Pentakvantar” (Books 1 and 2), “for a vivid multicultural science-fiction saga that expands the genre boundaries of Belarusian literature.”
A review of the book is available here.
This year’s competition thus provided further evidence that Belarusian literature continues to develop even under circumstances in which reaching readers can involve risks and obstacles.
Mikita Belahlazau, head of the Audiobooks.by publishing house, announced a special prize for this year’s finalists: every shortlisted book will be professionally recorded as an audiobook by the publisher’s team.
The evening concluded with a musical performance by special guest Liavon Volski, the legendary Belarusian singer, musician, artist and writer whose songs have become part of Belarus’s cultural heritage. He was accompanied by guitarist Pavel Tryputs, a professional musician and founder of a music studio in Warsaw.
The Jerzy Giedroyc Literary Prize has been awarded since 2012 and is Belarus’s most important independent literary award.
It is organised by Belarusian PEN and the International Union of Belarusian Writers.
The prize’s partners are the European Solidarity Centre, the Belarusian Cultural Society “Khatka”, “Budzma Belarusians!”, Audiobooks.by, Belsat.TV, Reform.news, Euroradio, Polish PEN Club and the Publishers’ Association.
The project is co-financed under the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Polish Development Cooperation programme.
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