Here is more from Gellu Dorian himself: \u201cWe came up with the idea of this prize right after the Revolution, in June 1990. We knew that in June 1989 Mihai Eminescu\u2019s centenary was celebrated. Right after the Revolution, in an attempt to change the format of literary meetings which were way too formal and full of fake eulogy and untrue things about Eminescu\u2019s life and work, we decided to initiate in Botosani, with the help of the municipality, the \u201cMihai Eminescu\u201d National Poetry Award. It was only in March 1991 that the Local Council, following heated debates, established this award officially”.<\/p>\n
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The \u201cMihai Eminescu\u201d National Poetry Award, is not granted easily, that\u2019s why it has acquired value in time. A proof thereof is the confession of this year\u2019s winner, Ion Muresan from the city of Cluj-Napoca, who says that to him this award is, quote, \u201c an access card to the Romanian poetry\u2019s elite club, given that the most important poets of the last 50 years have been granted this award.\u201d Unquote.<\/p>\n
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Poet Gellu Dorian: \u201cFrom the very beginning we wanted to grant this poetry award to a Romanian contemporary writer, for lifetime achievement. Hence the \u201cOpera Omnia\u201d title added to the award. In order to make this award legitimate, we established a national jury, made up of outstanding personalities of literary criticism and literature and professors from four Romanian university centers – Bucharest, Cluj, Iasi, Timisoara. Head of the Writers\u2019 Union at that time, the late literary critic Laurentiu Ulici liked the idea and supported it. He set up a jury that, for ten years, has been legitimating this award, which has so far been granted to 10 poets. Value has always been the main selection criterion. We have a whole year to pick one poet from among tens of poets who have already published several volumes. Then we try to find out the opinion of people in cultural institutions, publishing houses, high schools and the social media. We centralize the results and together with the Hyperion Cultural Foundation in Botosani we analyze the work of the top ten poets. Five, and in the past two years, seven poets, have their work assessed by a jury whose number of members has also increased. There are seven personalities who nominate the winner. So it\u2019s quite hard to choose the best poet, because there are many talented poets in Romanian literature. It\u2019s impossible to grant awards to all of them. \u201c<\/p>\n
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Some of the names that have been \u201crecovered,\u201d as poet Gellu Dorian put it, are Gellu Naum, Ana Blandiana, \u015etefan Augustin Doina\u015f, Ileana M\u0103l\u0103ncioiu, Dorin Tudoran. Ileana Malanciou, winner of the award at the fifth edition of the event, also came up with the idea of offering an award for best debut. This is why, since 1998, the Ipotesti Memorial in Botosani has granted the \u201cMihai Eminescu\u201d National Award for Opera Prima. The winners of the 16 editions held so far include Doru Mare\u015f, Liviu Georgescu, R\u0103zvan \u0162upa, Dan Sociu and, this year, \u015etefan Baghiu. And it was not long ago that literary critic Mircea Martin was wondering; \u201chow long before one of the poets awarded for best debut so far will return to Boto\u015fani to receive the Grand Prize?\u201d<\/p>\n
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This is also the question that we asked the initiator of the Mihai Eminescu Award, poet Gellu Dorian: \u201cThere is no doubt that all the poets that have received this debut prize are rising stars. Some of them have published a lot of books\u2014such is the case with Liviu Georgescu, the winner of the third edition. Indeed, professor Mircea Martin, who has been a member of the jury ever since the beginning, and is also a member of the jury for the debut award, has asked a justified question. We believe that soon enough, probably at the 20th edition or so, we may have a nomination of this kind.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n
We remind you that at the 23rd edition, the \u201cMihai Eminescu\u201d National Poetry Award for lifetime achievement was granted to poet Ion Mure\u015fan, by a jury chaired by Romanian Academy member Nicolae Manolescu and made up of Mircea Martin, Cornel Ungureanu, Ion Pop, Alexandru Cistelecan, Mircea Diaconu and Ioan Holban. Also nominated for the award, apart from Ion Mure\u015fan, were writers Mircea C\u0103rt\u0103rescu, Liviu Ioan Stoiciu, Lucian Vasiliu, Constantin Ab\u0103lu\u0163\u0103, Ovidiu Geraru and Vasile Vlad. The prize, worth 20 thousand lei, as well as the trophy, were handed to Ion Mure\u015fan in a special gala organised during the Mihai Eminescu Days. Just like his predecessors, the winner received the honorary citizenship of Boto\u015fani.<\/p>\n
The \u201cMihai Eminescu\u201d National Poetry Award has been granted every year on January the 15th, the birthday of national poet Mihai Eminescu. Under a law promulgated in December 2010, January the 15th is also the National Culture Day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shortly after the events of December 1989, a new award was initiated in Botosani, which soon became a landmark of Romanian contemporary poetry: the \u201cMihai Eminescu National Poetry Award. This award was the idea of poet Gellu Dorian, from Botosani.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":158705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44685],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-158704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-of-culture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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