Fifty new books – part of the project of the Ministry of Culture, dubbed ‘Treasures of World Literature’, were promoted late Tuesday in Skopje.
This edition unites the world literary values that scooped the most prestigious literary awards, Culture Minister Elizabeta Kanceska Milevska said at the promotion ceremony.
Many of these books, she noted, have not been translated in Macedonian language thus far and hence unavailable to domestic literary fans.
‘Treasures of World Literature’ foresees a translation of 316 works that have won one of the world’s top eight literary awards, namely the UK’s Booker Prize, the Russian Booker Prize, the US Pulitzer Prize that recognizes works in journalism and the arts in general, the French literary award Prix Goncourt, Italy’s most prestigious prize Strega, Spain’s Miguel de Cervantes Prize for lifetime achievement in literature, the German Book Prize and Hans Christian Andersen Award for children’s books.
Most of these gems of literature in English, French, Russian, German, Spanish and Italian will be translated into Macedonian language for the first time ever.
The ‘Treasures of World Literature’, as the project ‘Stars of World Literature’, bring about the best literary works to the domestic public and at the same time affirm the Macedonian literary language, edition’s promoter Mitko Mandzukov said. Safeguarding of the literary language is the alpha and omega of the spiritual survival of each nation, he added.
The promotion was attended by Finance Minister Kiril Minovski, VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski, writers, translators, lectors and publishers.
