Olga Martynova, a bilingual Russian novelist, has become the first-ever Russian winner of the Roswitha Prize, the oldest German-language literary award, which is given exclusively for women.

      Olga Martynova now lives in Germany where she writes poems in her native Russian language and, at the same time, creates prose in German. She has received the Roswitha award for her novel "Even the Parrots Outlive Us". Some critics described the novel as "the best to appear in German-language literature in recent times".

      “With this award we praise the cosmopolitan writer whose musicality, wit and impressive knowledge enrich our literary landscape,” the Roswitha Prize jury stated. “We are honored that Olga Martynova is living in Germany,” members of the jury summed up.

      The Roswitha Prize was named in honour of Roswitha of Gandersheim (938-973) - a German secular canoness of the Benedictine Order, as well as a dramatist and poet. She is often considered as the first European dramatist since Antiquity.

        The first Roswitha Prize was presented in 1973. Among the previous winners are two Nobel Prize winners – the author of Lust and The Piano Teacher, Austrian novelist Elfriede Jelinek, and a Romanian-born writer showing a strong influence from Franz Kafka, Herta Muller.

      This year the Prize will be awarded on 4th of November in Bad Gandersheim town (Lower Saxony).

Sources: OpenSpace Russia Today

See Also: Russian Literature