The Ficțiunea Magazine and the Association of Fiction Creators (ACF) recently organized the Fiction Awards Gala for the year 2024, and I was among the event’s organizers.
Everything took place on Thursday evening, November 13, at the Bulandra Theatre, Liviu Ciulei Hall.
As this was the fourth edition of the awards, I’ll mention a few of the previous laureates: Horațiu Mălăele, Tudor Giurgiu, Mircea Cărtărescu, Eugen Jebeleanu, and many others.
The Ficțiunea group has always celebrated storytelling, character, and hybrid style — and this year was no exception. Perhaps a little more cheerful.
I opened the gala together with Șerban Pavlu, in a lively onstage dialogue with Petre Nechita and Anca Șurian Caproș. From the stage, the world looked different — yet I could see the hall was full: writers, actors, students, teachers, and many of my own readers.
But who took home the awards? The Association of Fiction Creators and Ficțiunea Magazine granted the following distinctions:
1. Best Story Award — to Radu Paraschivescu for the novel Brățară pe glezna ta (Anklet on Your Ankle), Humanitas, 2024.
The decision belonged to the writer Roxana Dumitrache, who justified her choice as follows:
“The novel avoids clichés and offers a hybrid narrative in which the epistolary style, travelogue, and romantic plot intertwine gracefully. Balanced, convincing, original.”
2. Best Character Award was granted to two roles — one from film and one from theatre.
The character Iță, played by Rareș Andrici in the film The Heist of the Century (directed by Teodora Ana Mihai, screenplay by Cristian Mungiu), received the prize for authenticity, being created through an intriguing blend of moderate realism and symbolic fiction.
The second award went to Oedipus, performed by Vlad Zamfirescu in Andrei Șerban’s production at the Bulandra Theatre.
The character captivates through mythic deconstruction and contemporary resonance.
Vlad Zamfirescu declined the monetary reward, turning his distinction into an honorary one. (jury member: Adriana Irimescu)
3. Best Ending Award — a prize I confess I would have liked to win — went to the play Hello, Ceaușescu, written by Eduard Buhac and Matei Lucaci-Grünberg, directed by Matei Lucaci-Grünberg, staged at the Comedy Theatre.
The play’s finale has been described as “multiple” and as introducing a new kind of symbolism. (jury member: Daniel Nica)
4. Avant-garde Visual Narrative of 2024 — Sleep #2 by Radu Jude, a video installation offering a striking meditation on the passage of time. (jury member: Ileana Marin)
5. Hybrid Style Award — to Elogiu alor mei (In Praise of My Own) by Varujan Vosganian (Ararat Publishing).
A beautiful hybrid volume combining poetry, prose, and photography in a convincing and memorable way. (jury member: Marius Nica)
6. Ficțiunea Magazine Award — to Andrei Novac for the book 35 – The Untold Story of a Revolution, Vellant, 2024, marking the 35th anniversary of the 1989 Revolution.
The book combines the biographies of heroes with poems and photographs, in a moving and dramatic composition. (jury member: Petre Nechita)
7. Short Fiction Award — for stories published in Ficțiunea Magazine and the Ficțiunea online group — went to Bianca Zbarcea, Adrian-Florin Duță, and Ana Ionesei. (jury member: Ciprian Handru)
Roxana Dumitrache, writer, PhD in Political Science
Adriana Irimescu, actress, writer, and TV producer
Daniel Nica, lecturer at the University of Bucharest, PhD in Philosophy
Ileana Marin, associate professor and PhD supervisor in Cultural Studies, University of Bucharest, affiliated with the University of Washington (Seattle); specialist in aesthetics and digital arts; vice-president of the American Romanian Cultural Society, Seattle
Marius Nica, literary critic and narratology scholar, associate professor at the Faculty of English, Ploiești
Petre Nechita, prose writer, TV journalist, and editor at Ficțiunea Magazine
Ciprian Handru, PhD candidate, University of Bucharest; writer and editor of Ficțiunea Magazine
It’s worth mentioning that the Fiction Awards are granted through the votes of ACF members.
The top four nominees in each category are considered eligible, and for each category one jury member personally selects the winner among them — a public, reasoned, and fully assumed choice.
