Euromedia Awards Literary Prize to Lan Pham Thi

It has become one of the Czech Republic's most renowned awards for young talents, and this year it has done more justice to its purpose than most of the previous times around: the 19 year-old author Lan Pham Thi won the "Book Club Literary Prize" of the DirectGroup subsidiary Euromedia in the beginning of September, making her the youngest winner in the award's 14 years of history.

The expert jury of authors and literary critics selected the novel "Bílej kun, žlutej drak" (The white horse, the yellow dragon) by Lan Pham Thi from among 77 thus far unpublished manuscripts. Jury member Pavel Janácek commented: "The manuscript is very short and yet full of surprising contrasts." The Chairman of the jury, Ivan Binar, especially liked the book's language. He stated that it is of such high quality that many Czech authors could actually learn something from the daughter of two Vietnamese immigrants.

50,000 Czech Crowns and definite publication

The book deals with an explosive issue: it is about racist attacks against Vietnamese who immigrated to the Czech Republic – about skinheads, but also about local elites. The jury especially liked the fact that Lan Pham Thi opens up the possibility for readers to observe a community that lives in relative seclusion.

By the way, the author is no longer part of that community. She now lives in the United States with her family; hence, she was not able to come to the Prague Kaiserstein Palace to accept the award, which is endowed with 50,000 Czech Crowns (almost €2,000). However, it is probably more important for the young author that Euromedia will now publish her book.

All young Czech authors can especially look forward to next year: "For the 15th anniversary, we will present a dual award endowed with 100,000 Czech Crowns," Andreas Kaulfuß, Managing Director of Euromedia Group, announced at this year's award presentation.