The new Athens Prize for Literature, comprising both Greek Novels and Foreign Novels (translated into Greek) sections, is the first award ever designated in Greece for foreign works. The (De)kata literary journal (www.dekata.gr) (in Greek), edited by Dinos Siotis, has modelled some aspects of the Athens Prize after other noted awards such as the Booker Prize in Great Britain and the National Book Circle Award in the U.S.

Judges announced the names of the two award recipients on June 9 2008 at Citylink, central Athens. Javier Cercas, who flew in from Barcelona especially for the occasion, won the first prize in the foreign novel category with “The Speed of Light,” whereas Ioanna Bouratzopoulos was awarded for best Greek novel, with her “What Did Lot’s Wife See?”

From The Greek News Agenda

The Athens Prize for Literature is only in its second year, but looks fairly ambitious, and they’ve announced their prize-winners for this year (no press release out yet, but they were kind enough to let us know). They have an international category, in which Javier Cercas’ The Speed of Light beat out Martin Amis, Sarah Waters, Uzodinma Iweala, Andrew O’Hagan, Jan Henrik Swahn, and Zsuzsa Bank.
Ioanna Bouratzopoulos won for best Greek novel, for What Lot’s Wife saw.

from The Literary Saloon