Three shortlisted titles, three victories. If this were a sporting matter, we might say that Host Publishers converted all its chances. The scorers were Patrik Banga, Viktor Špaček and Petr Hruška.
As winner in the Debut of the Year category, the jury chose Patrik Banga’s The Real Way Out / Skutečná cesta ven, a memoir about life in the 1990s in the Roma ghetto of Prague’s Žižkov district. The author is the first writer of Roma origin ever to win a Magnesia Litera. ‘I hope to see another Roma author standing here in a few years, as an author rather than a Roma author,’ said Banga at the presentation, having been asked if society had moved on since the 1990s.
Viktor Špaček left the ceremony with the Magnesia Litera for Prose, awarded for his collection of short stories An Impeccable Life in Humility / Čistý, skromný život. ‘All my characters have a little of me in them,’ he admitted in his acceptance speech.
Let us add the third Host Publishers' victor is Petr Hruška, who won the Magnesia Litera for Poetry with his collection I Spied My Face / Spatřil jsem svou tvář.
24. 4. 2023
