Charles Simic wins Zbigniew Herbert Award

BELGRADE - The winner of the international literary award Zbigniew Herbert for 2014 is Charles Simic, the Zbigniew Herbert Foundation released.

Born in Serbia in 1938, Simic entered the international literary scene by introducing American slang and specific east European sensibility, states the Foundation's release as quoted by Simic's Serbian publisher Arhipelag.

The award will be delivered on May 14 at a ceremony in the Polish Theatre in Warsaw and it comprises a Herbert statue and USD 50,000 worth of prize money.

It is great to hear such a piece of news first thing in the morning and it is wonderful for such news to come from the country which gave so many important poets to the world, some of whom, including Zbigniew Herbert, meant so much to me, Simic said.

He noted that he first read Herbert's poems in translation by Czeslaw Milosz in 1965 and two years later, he had a chance to meet him in New York and on a few occasions later in the U.S. and Europe.

The decision on the award was adopted by jury comprising poets, essay writers, translators and publishers including Tomas Venclova (Lithaunia/the U.S.), Lidija Dimkovska (Macedonia/Slovenia), Agneta Pleijel (Sweden) and Jaume Vallcorba Plana (Spain).

Arhipelag recently published a book of Simic's new essays on literature, politics and public issues entitled 'Stare Long and Intently' (Gledaj Dugo i Netremice) and three years ago, it released the major retrospective of Simic's poetry starting from early poems to poems translated from the manuscript 'Waiting for the Verdict' (Cekajuci Presudu).

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