“In her lively prose, the author demonstrates a keen eye for visual detail and a keen sense of her characters’ sensory experience. Mischievous schoolgirls, rebellious teenagers, nonconformist women, single mothers. The short stories do not explain their unconventional behavior; they simply depict it – vividly and empathetically,” said the jury of Marie Škrdlíková’s work.   

The young author grew up in Uherský Brod and now lives in Brno, where she works at a low-threshold facility for children and youth from a socially excluded neighborhood near the Cejl area. The DILIA Litera Award traditionally comes with a financial prize – this year amounting to 50,000 Czech crowns. DILIA also supports the award winners in publishing their next book. The award for the Debut of the Year was presented by Jan Barták, director of DILIA.

Radovan Jursa won with his poem collection Concept of Transplantation in the Poetry category, while Cyril Matějka won the Readers’ Choice Award with his book Kid’s Medicine. The winner in the Youth category was the comic book From V. With Love by illustrator Kateřina Illnerová and the Publicistic Book of the Year is Scattered by journalist Klára Kubíčková and therapist Jana Srncová.

Jela Abasová won the Litera Award for the Fantasy Book with her Quarter to Madness, Zuzana Bergrová won in the Humor category with her book Suspicious Silence and the Crime Fiction of the Year is The Black Bird by Jiří Klečka. The Litera Award for the Best Non-fiction Book went to Petr Pokorný and Petr Šída for their Hinterland: Archeology of the North Bohemian Sandstone Landscapes and the Best Translated Fiction of the Year is Glory by Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo, translated into Czech by Anna Štádlerová.