Kundera Won Simone And Cino Del Duca Award

Famous writer of Czech origin Milan Kundera who has been lining in France since 1974 was awarded in Paris this Wednesday the Simone and Cino Del Duca Foundation World Prize for his contribution to promoting ideas of humenism. This prize is named after Italian publisher Cino Del Duca (1899-1967) who established the Editions mondiales press group specializing on publishing professional literature.

The Simone and Cino Del Duca Foundation World Prizeis granted annually to prominent writers and scientists. In 1997 it was granted to famous Czech playwright and former president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel. The prize is awarded upon the decision of the jury made of 14 notable French persons some of whom are members of the French Academy.

Milan Kundera (born April 1, 1929 in Brno) is considered to be one of the most well known writers of Czech. He writes both in Czech and French. The most highly appraised of his works are novels The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1982, first published in 1984 in France), The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (published in 1979), and The Joke (published in 1967).

In 1974 Kundera had to immigrate to France where he was granted citizenship in 1981. Since then he began to write his works in French (and in French only since 1990). His latest book - a collection of essays Une rencontre (A meeting) - has published in March, 2009.

Photo: EPA (delo.si)