At the non/fiction intellectual book fair, according to its invariable custom, the winners of the Andrei Bely Prize - the oldest underground-avant-garde-current literary award - were named. In the poetry category, the legendary and symbolic prize-winner set (ruble, bottle of vodka, apple) was won by Alexey Tsvetkov for the collections “Eden and Others” (M., “O.G.I.”) and “Names of Love” (M., “New publishing house”; by the way, Tsvetkov’s book of essays “The Atlantic Diary” has just been published). Among prose writers, the winner was Alexander Ilyanen, author of the novel “Vanity Boutique” (Tver, Kolonna Publications). The book by philosopher Oleg Aranson “Communicative Image: Cinema” was recognized as the best humanitarian research. Literature. Philosophy" (Moscow, "New Literary Review". The poet Vsevolod Nekrasov was awarded "for services to literature". Although other notable books were included in the three shortlists (for example, collections of poems by Nikolai Baitov and Pyotr Cheigin, "Appendix to the Photo Album" Vladislav Otroshenko, “Escape of the Kumanika” by Lena Eltang, “Vineta” by Oleg Yuriev, a collection of articles on modern poetry by Vladislav Kulakov “Post Factum”, a joint study by Anna Zaliznyak, Irina Levontina and Alexey Shmelev “Key ideas of the Russian language picture of the world”), choice of the surprise jury does not cause - the Andrei Bely Prize lives according to its own mysterious laws, incomprehensible to an outside observer. The situation is different with the award of Vsevolod Nekrasov. This poet has entered the history of modern Russian literature so undeniably and long ago that, having learned about his laureate only today, one is forced to deceive. hands: Where were our advanced innovators looking before? It remains to repeat as usual: Better late than never .
At the fair, it was announced the establishment of another - radical, countercultural, crazy - prize. It will bear the name of the poet, translator and publisher Ilya Kormiltsev, who died in February, and will be awarded in eight categories: “Countercultural journalism”, “Trash in literature and non-fiction”, “Literary experiment”, “Islamic breakthrough”, “Dramaturgy”, “ Poetry", "Esoterics", "Kulturträger". The first award ceremony should take place on September 26, 2008 - the birthday of Ilya Kormiltsev.
