Maria Stepanova became a laureate of the literary Berman Prize

Russian poetess and novelist Maria Stepanova became the laureate of the Swedish literary Berman Prize for 2023. The prize, founded in Sweden in 2020, was awarded for the book “Memories of Memory”, which received high praise from many literary critics in the West and, among other things, was included in the shortlist of the International Booker Prize.

As noted on the prize’s website, Stepanova, who is also known as an essayist, was one of the first world-renowned Russian writers to publicly protest against the invasion of Ukraine. Her English-language essay “The War of Putin’s Imagination”, published in the Financial Times in the early days of the war, became widely known in the West. Stepanova now lives in Berlin.

The sum of the Berman Prize is 750,000 Swedish kroner (approximately 65,000 euros), it is awarded for works of any genre, in which – in the modern humanistic context – the Jewish tradition is reflected.