Kazakhstan poetess shortlisted for Debut Literary Prize

Poetess Aigerim Tazhi was shortlisted for the independent Debut Literary Prize, Tengrinews.kz reports, citing the official website of the contest. Selection of poems, written by the 30-year old Aktobe resident is expected to be awarded in the i>Poetry category. Poems of three other poets were shortlisted in this category as well. There are six categories in the contest: i>Novel, i>Story, i>Playwriting, i>Poetry, i>Essay, i>Science fiction. Authors aged under 35 are allowed to take part in the contest. 50 000 selections of poems participated in the contest this year, with only 100 being long-listed as the best works. The prize pool of the contest amounts to six million Russian rubles (about $200 000). Winners' texts will be published in Sweden, Italy and Spain. Famous literature experts Nikolay Kolyada, Maria Arbatova, Oleg Divov, Maksim Amelin, Dmitry Bak and Maria Galina judged this year's contest. Kazakhstan poetess' poems had already been long-listed for this literary Prize in 2003. She was awarded with i>The Person of the Year title in Aktobe oblast in 2006. Aigerim Tazhi graduated from Aktobe State University named after Zhubanov with a degree in i>International Economy. She has published five poetry books.