Awards Ceremony of the Competition for Best Unpublished Literary Work 2024 of the Department of Creative Writing at the University American College Skopje in Cooperation with the Publishing House Ars Lamina

The Awards Ceremony of the first competition for best unpublished literary work of the Master’s Program of Creative Writing at the University American College Skopje in cooperation with the publishing house Ars Lamina, was held on October 28, 2024 (Monday) at Literatura.mk (Diamond Mall).

23 manuscripts were submitted (10 short stories, 11 poetic works, one essay and one play), with thirteen manuscripts wre written in Macedonian, four in Albanian and six in English. The manuscripts were evaluated by a committee composed of the poets Nikola Madzirov and Arlind Farizi, professors and writers Ivana Trajanoska and Ivan Dodovski (heads of the Creative Writing Master Program at the University American College Skopje) and Bisera Bendevska, editor and representative from the publishing house Ars Lamina.

Encouraging writing practices that stand out with linguistic and stylistic originality and with thematic relevance, the jury committee unanimously decided to award five prizes, namely:

– two third prizes: to Adelina Xhaferi for the poem Ne s’i ngjajmë të djeshmes and to Martina Veselinovska for the dramatic text Footprints Immortalized in the Sand;
– two second prizes: to Gordana Karakashevska for the poetry selection “Brshlen”, and to Brit Lilit for the poem A Week and A Day of Melted Chocolate Sensation;
– first prize to Jovana Matevska-Atanasova for the short story Patuvanjeto na Berta.

Jovana Matevska-Atanasova was the winner of the main prize – a scholarship provided by Triglav Penzisko Drushtvo AD for full tuition for enrollment in the Master’s Program in Creative Writing at the School of Foreign Languages at the American University College Skopje.