The Ovid Prize, established in 2002, is a literary prize awarded annually to an author from any country, in recognition of a body of work. It is named in honour of the Roman poet Ovid, who died in exile in Tomis (contemporary Constanța), on the Black Sea, in Romania. Laureates are awarded 10,000 euros.
The Ovid Festival Prize, worth 5,000 euros, was also established in 2002. Past recipients include George Szirtes, Tomaž Šalamun, and Ismail Kadare. The prize underwent a change of mandate in 2007. Since 2008, it has been awarded to a prominent young talent.
Both Prizes are the joint initiative of the Writers' Union of Romania and the Romanian Cultural Institute (Romanian: Institutul Cultural Român). The winners are nominated by the Festival jury. The awards ceremony takes place during the Days and Nights of Literature Festival (Romanian: Zile și nopți de literatură) held jointly in Neptun and Mangalia in June. The Prize is also referred to as the Ovidius Prize.
The 2011 Laureate was the Czech writer Milan Kundera. In a letter addressed to the chairman of the jury, Kundera, who could not attend the ceremony, accepted the award. Kundera donated the prize to Humanitas Publishing House, which has published most of his works in a Romanian translation, with the mention that the money should go to assisting Romanian literature.[5] The 2012 edition was cancelled due to lack of funds.[6]
