Alexander Van der Bellen, President of Austria made a decision to award Miro Gavran with Gold Merit Badge of the Republic of Austria. It will be awarded on March 20th.
Miro Gavran’s work has been translated into 40 languages in more than 200 editions in Croatia and abroad. His dramas were templates for more than 300 theater premieres around the world which were seen by more than 3 million viewers. He is the most performed contemporary Croatian author in country and abroad.
Gavran’s connection to Austrian cultural space is strong and longlived. He received international Dr. Alois Mock Europa-Preis award for affirmation of European values in his literary works in December in Vienna. Prominent publisher from Vienna – “Seifert Verlag” published four of his novels in hardcover: Forgotten Son, Judith, John the Baptist and Pontius Pilatus. Twelve of his plays visited Vienna in last twenty years. Three of his plays (The Night of the Gods, George Washington’s Loves and Creon’s Antigone) were selected for book of selection of the best worsk from world dramatists.
This was published by the Institute for Theatrical Studies, University of Vienna and German publisher Anton Hiersemann in 2007. But that is not all, the plot of his plays Maria Theresa’s Longest Day and Dr. Freud’s Patient is set in Vienna, and the plot of his two novels Kafka’s Friend and A Few Birds and One Sky is partly set in Austria. Gavran has had nine theatre premieres in German in Austria and Germany so far and there is one more premiere coming up in Vienna in Septermber.
In his works Miro Gavran often deals with universal themes that cross the borders of Croatia and promote the idea of humanity. His heroes, like the author himself, have a very affirmative attitude towards life. Gavran’s works represent the values of tolerance and humanity on which the western civilization is based. Literary theorists and theatre experts sometimes notice that his artistic creation is permeated by a Central European spirit with typical Croatian local motifs and mindset.
Information taken from: www.facebook.com/mirogavran
