Names of Qalamdas Literary Award winners announced

The winners of the Qalamdas Literary Award for the season 2023-2024 were awarded in Almaty. The general sponsor of the award was EZ Solutions. The development strategy of our company includes special attention to projects related to Kazakhstani literature, as it is the strengthening and support of literature and reading potential of the country that directly contributes to its economic development. Such projects also support and help to grow interest in learning the Kazakh language.

This year, 231 applications were submitted for the award. 178 works were accepted for consideration, of which 62 were in Kazakh and 116 in Russian.

"Last season, we had an age limit of up to 40 years. This did not allow many authors to participate in the competition for the award. Therefore, in the second season, we decided to remove this age limit. As a result, we received much more works than last year, and the winners were both young authors and already well-known, established ones," notes Irina Gumyrkina, the coordinator and one of the organizers of the award.

Eight authors became the laureates of the second season of the award. They were awarded diplomas and received a cash prize of 200,000 tenge. Additionally, all laureates received a special prize of 50,000 tenge for services at the "Bookexpert" printing house.

The list of winners of the Qalamdas literary award (Russian language):

Prose category - Nikolai Zaitsev (Almaty region, Talgar city)

Poetry category - Evgeny Barabanshchikov (Almaty)

Literary criticism category - Anastasia Kiriyenko (Almaty) 

The list of winners of the Qalamdas literary award (Kazakh language):

Prose category - Yesbol Nurakhmet (Astana)

Poetry category - Balgyn Apbaskan (Kostanay region)

Literary criticism category - Sagynysh Namazshamova (Taldykorgan)

The list of winners in the "Literary Translation" category:

From Kazakh to Russian – Adolf Artsishevsky (Almaty) 

From Russian to Kazakh – Alihan Makhash (Almaty)

The award was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Kazakhstani event agency EZ Solutions and the oldest literary magazine in Kazakhstan, "Prostor". The ceremony took place at the Art Lane art space. The works of the award winners, as well as all the finalists, will be published in the "Dactyl" literary magazine. Furthermore, they will be recommended to Kazakhstani publishing houses.