The 15th anniversary ceremony of the Jerzy Giedroyc Literary Prize took place on November 7 at the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk, according to reform.news and Belarusian PEN, as cited by Nasha Niva.

The celebrations began the previous evening with poet and publisher Dzmitry Strotsau, and the day's programme included meetings with finalists Aliaksandr Karnaukh, Dzianis Trusau and Artsiom Shukanau, plus book-signing sessions.

Hosted by Krystsina Drobysh, the ceremony opened with a minute of silence for victims of a terrorist attack in Kraków and for Belarusian cultural figures who died this year.

The jury awarded first and second place to works that entered the competition in encrypted, concealed form, and only the jury members know the authors' real names and actual book titles, Nasha Niva reports.

First place went to a book submitted under the pseudonym Aliaksandr Kastsiukovich with the cover title "Lirnik" ("The Lyre Player"), honoured per the jury "for its exceptional command of language and profound empathy."

Second place went to "Tsieslia Zhytstsia" ("The Carpenter of Life") by an author using the pseudonym Siarhei Dubautsevich, recognised for its synthesis of documentary and literary writing and its contribution to Belarusian research-based prose.

Only the third prize went to an author competing openly. reform.news reports that Artsiom Shukanau received the award for his novel "Pentakvantar" (Books 1 and 2), cited by the jury "for a vivid multicultural science-fiction saga that expands the genre boundaries of Belarusian literature."

The prize evening also featured Artur Vakarau's graphic art exhibition "Local Zen" in the centre's foyer, and concluded with a musical performance by Liavon Volski, the Belarusian singer and writer whose songs the outlet calls part of the country's cultural heritage, accompanied by Warsaw-based guitarist Pavel Tryputs.

The ceremony's most striking staging, per reform.news, was a hall filled with empty chairs bearing portraits of imprisoned writers, plus a special empty chair dedicated to manuscripts lost in places of detention — a number the outlet says is impossible even to imagine.

Belarusian PEN chair Tatsiana Niadbai reminded the audience that at least 19 writers and at least 115 cultural figures are imprisoned, telling them that "every book that nevertheless reaches its readers is a kind of heroic achievement," and that readers who find these books help keep the Belarusian language alive.

Alongside the main awards, reform.news reports that Mikita Belahlazau, head of the Audiobooks.by publishing house, announced a special prize for this year's finalists: every shortlisted book will be professionally recorded as an audiobook by the publisher's team.

The prize has been awarded since 2012 and is considered Belarus's most important independent literary award.

It is organised by Belarusian PEN and the International Union of Belarusian Writers, with partners including the European Solidarity Centre, Khatka, Budzma Belarusians!, belsat.tv, Euroradio and the Polish PEN Club.

Both reform.news and Nasha Niva frame this year's competition as further evidence that Belarusian literature continues to develop even under circumstances where reaching readers can involve risks and obstacles.

The identities of the top two winners and the true titles of their books are not yet being publicly disclosed for security reasons, so the literary community is left waiting for the day it is safe to reveal them.