27.10.2015
The jury of the tportal's literary award selected the novel “Roki Raketa” by Zoran Malkoč as the best novel among 52 novels received for this year’s contest roman@tportal.hr
Besides the award in the form of a keyboard, which was presented to him at the award winning ceremony of the roman@tportal contest at Müller Hall of the Europa cinema in Zagreb, Zoran Malkoč also received HRK 50,000 in prize money for his novel “Roki Raketa”.
The contest finalists, besides “Roki Raketa” by Zoran Malkoč published by Profil, were as follows: “Svećenica Mjeseca” by Milena Benini (published by Zagrebačka naklada), “Mima i kvadratura duga” by Želimir Periša (published by Algoritam / 24 sata), “Brdo” by Ivica Prtenjača (published by VBZ), and “Puteni nametnik” by Igor Rajki (published by Durieux).
“Tportal is above all known for its writing about politics and business, but we are one of the rare media which still hold culture very important. When we were deciding on the date of the winner announcement, we did not know that it would be at the time of the election campaign, but we are not sorry because of that. As a matter of fact, it is great that, at the peak of the election campaign and serious political issues, we throw some light on and draw attention to culture, literature, and writers. Our jury did a great job and made a tportal reading list for all, even politicians. If they had read more, their speeches these days could have been better and stronger,” said the editor in chief of tportal, Đurđica Klancir.
“I am very glad that Hrvatski Telekom has been present in the Croatian culture for many years, and this award makes us present in the literature as well. I am especially fond of this award because it originates from tportal, which is a part of Hrvatski Telekom. In the past eight years, over 400 authors applied to our literary contest, which says a lot about the importance of the contest in the Croatian literature,” said Davor Tomašković, President of the Management Board of Hrvatski Telekom.
“As I said in my interview for tportal, I found myself in a really good company. As for the 50 thousand kuna prize money, I must say that it is not something that I really need, because I am financially rather well-situated and rich. And, as my friend Robert Roklicer said, I have no imagination. Do you really think that this dog is a product of my imagination? This dog has secured my existence for some years,” said the award winner Zoran Malkoč.
According to the assessment of the jury, comprising Kristina Novak, Jadranka Pintarić, and Miroslav Mićanović, 52 completely different perceptions of literature, language, and reality competed for the tportal award this year. The jury decided that the award should go to the novel which wittingly conflicts all three concepts and still preserves its humorousness, attitude, and authentic emotions.