Orange Book Prize 2012 launched

Today Orange announced the launch of Orange Book Prize 2012. The objective of the contest is to boost interest in reading, reveal the literary works by contemporary Armenian writers and through the daily evolving electronic media spread them among large group of readers. With this initiative Orange also joins book and reading festivities in Yerevan. It is worth reminding that Yerevan has been declared World Book Capital this year. Orange Book Prize is organized and implemented in cooperation with the Armenian Book Center NGO.

“Already the second time with joy we announce the launch of Orange Book Prize. This is not a professional literary prize, neither it tends to become such. Orange Book prize is readers’ and booklovers’ prize. Reading public will be able to participate in choosing the prize-winning literary works through online voting. This initiative will enable to discover and encourage many gifted and original writers. However, our main objective is to attract the largest circles of readers and give them the chance to enjoy this great book feast,” said Bruno Duthoit, Orange Armenia CEO.

The contest will be open to all those who write in Armenian and who will present a literary work never published in the past (literary works posted in electronic journals, blogs and social networks are considered non-published).

Literary works of the following 4 genres can be presented for participation in the contest: short story, novel, fairy tale, poetry. Those who wish to participate in the contest will need to send their work in Armenian and its brief summary in Word or PDF format by orangebookprize@orangearmenia.am until 15 November, 2012.

Jury members will choose maximum 3 works in each genre until 15 January, 2013, which will be posted on Orange official page. All readers will be able to vote for their favorite works through Facebook. On 15 February, at noon, the quantity of votes per each work will be registered as the final result of online voting.

The winning work of each genre will be chosen by the vote of the jury. Moreover, online voting results will be considered as the vote one member of the Jury. A special “Popular Prize” will be awarded for the literary work, regardless of the genre, with the maximum quantity of votes.

“Our last year’s experience showed that we have a large number of creative people in our country, whose works very often remain unpublished due to different reasons. Orange Book Prize is right for them. For this year we especially expect to have many participants involved in this initiative not only from Yerevan, but also from regions and the Diaspora, as it is the first time the contest is open as well to our compatriots living in the Diaspora, who write in Armenian,” said Mkrtich Matevosyan, President of the Armenian Book Center NGO.

Names of the winners will be announced on 20 February, 2013, during the awarding ceremony. The winners will be granted with certificates and the winning works will be printed by quantity of 500. The authors of winning works of each genre will be awarded with money prize (500 000 AMD each), save “Popular Prize” winner.

As a reminder, 130 works have participated in Orange Book Prize in 2011, out of which 5 works in the following novel, screenplay/scenario, short story and fairy tale genres have been recognized winners.

List of Jury members:
Vahram Danielyan, literary critic
Anna Sargsyan, journalist
Anush Kocharyan, student
Ani Chibukhchyan, Orange
Siranush Dvoyan, literary critic
Armen Patvakanyan
Serge Melik-Hovsepyan, theatre director
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