365 stars and 182 aspiring authors have stepped out onto the world stage

LONDON, March 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The London International Literary Award is the joint project of the International and Great Britain Unions of Writers. The competition was held from September 1, 2018 to December 1, 2019. The goal was to encourage literary activities, to preserve and enhance cultural traditions.

The organizers – Interregional Public Organization International Union of Writers, Playwrights and Journalists, the International Union of Writers, Interregional Public Organization Union of Fiction Writes and Cinema Workers – set high goals: firstly, to discover new talents and empower existing ones; to improve the professional level of playwrights, translators, writers and poets.

The award gave the young authors the possibility to make themselves known. The finalists had the opportunity to win grants to translate their books and publish them in England. The International London Award invited both debutants and aspiring authors, as well as masters of literature to participate.

The Award brought together recognized writers from all over the world: Isaac Adamson (USA), Melvin Burgess (UK), Richard Glover (Australia), Antjie Krog (South Africa), Laimonas Tapinas (Lithuania) – and many others.

Among them there were writers from Russia — Vladimir Kolykhalov, Aleksei Barkhatov, Galina Shchekina, Sergei Tarmashev, Sergei Lukianenko, Sergei Volkov and others.

The participants were divided into three categories: "megastars", "stars" and "new authors". There were six nominations to choose from in the main spheres: prose, poetry, drama and literary translation.

The competition was held in four stages.

The first one ended with the experts forming and announcing the long list. The selected writers received the title of "Best Author of the Year".

Then, a short list was drawn up by the grand jury based on the long list. The authors received the regalia and the opportunity to get into the catalog in English for producers of the International Union of Writers to work with English-speaking publishers on publishing these authors' works.

The small jury, which consisted of Russian-speaking and English-speaking writers and critics, choose finalists among the authors from in the shortlist. They received medals and prizes, as well as diplomas and certificates for participation in international programs of the International Union of Writers.

In addition to the lists of finalists, the lists of laureates of three classes were also made.

The laureates of the award are: Dan Brown (USA), Wendy Orr (Australia), Carol Ann Duffy (UK), Victoria Levina (Israel), Taufik Karimov (Kazakhstan), Lee Mi-Jung (Canada), Pavel Gubin (USA), Igoni Barrett (Nigeria), Han Kang (South Korea), Luna El (France), Alice Lippart (Norway), Oleg Stelman (Lithuania), Saria Mammadova (Azerbaijan), Lyubov Pivnik (USA) and many others.

Authors from Russia: Svetlana Angarskaia, Sasha Krugosvetov, Anatolii Obiedkov, Olga Chernienko, Iana Varshavskaia, Viacheslav Egiazarov.

The award ceremony was held in online format.

The London International Award is a big step for the literary community. Thanks to the organizers of the event, more than 500 authors had the opportunity to present their work on the world stage and win over a foreign audience.