Literary Awards Presented in Vojvodina, TASR Correspondent Gaspar Receives Two

Novi Sad, 22 January (TASR) - Literary awards were presented on the premises of the National Council of the Slovak Ethnic Minority in Novi Sad, Serbia on Wednesday (21 January), TASR has learnt. The winners of the traditional literary competition, titled 'What a Beautiful Word Can Do', along with the laureates of a competition organised by the Zornicka (Little Morning Star) children's magazine received their awards. Authors submitted a total of 43 works to the 'What a Beautiful Word Can Do' competition for 2025. The contest is intended for primary and secondary school students. Poetry and prose literature was submitted from seven ethnic-Slovak environments in Vojvodina. The jury awarded the first prize for prose in the secondary school students category to Natalia Siantova, a student from the Mihajlo Pupin Grammar School in Kovacica, for her work titled 'The Powerful Message of Ordinary Words'. "I've written things many times, but this is my first award. I'm very proud of it, and it's encouraged me to write more. It's shown me that I shouldn't give up, but continue. I chose to write about the theme of the message of words," Siantova told TASR. Svetlusa Hlavacova, a coordinator of the Council's Culture Committee, was in charge of organising both contests. "When it came to the pupils' literary competition 'What a Beautiful Word Can Do', we organised it for the fifteenth time ... The response was somewhat lower than in previous years, but we're pleased that students from the grammar school in Stara Pazova also took part. I think that Slovak language teachers play a very important role in this, as they should motivate students, encourage them and send in their works," said Hlavacova. The results of the literary competition of the Zornicka children's magazine were also announced as part of a ceremonial event on Wednesday. A total of six texts by three authors were submitted to the competition: five prose works and one poem. The first and third prizes in the prose category went to the TASR correspondent in Novi Sad, Miroslav Gaspar. Jan Zolnaj took home two second prizes for prose. In the poetry genre, the jury awarded third prize to Svetlusa Hlavacova. Speaking at the ceremony, Gaspar expressed his pleasure at receiving the awards, but he added that he'd like to see stronger competition. "I'm pleased that I won two prizes in the competition. At the same time, I wish that the competition were much stronger, as only three authors took part in it this time. I won the third prize for the text 'Grandfather Frost Comes with a Dog', which deals with the creative ability of children. I received the first prize for the text 'My Blue Friend', which addresses a theme that I want to focus on in my work. It concerns depression and anxiety in children, as I believe that this is something that needs to be spoken about," stated Gaspar. ko/df