The Cikada Prize is a Swedish literary prize for East Asian poets. It was founded in 2004 following the 100th anniversary celebration commemorating of the birth of Swedish Nobel Prize winner

Harry Martinson Harry Martinson (6May 190411February 1978) was a Swedish writer, poet and former sailor. In 1949 he was elected into the Swedish Academy. He was awarded a joint 1974 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1974 together with fellow ...

. The award consists of a diploma, 30,000 SEK and a piece of ceramic art designed by the Swedish ceramics artist Gunilla Sundström. The award was initially (the first five prizes) presented in cooperation with the European Institute of Japanese Studies (EIJS) at the

Stockholm School of Economics The Stockholm School of Economics (SSE; sv, Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, HHS) is a private business school located in city district Vasastaden in the central part of Stockholm, Sweden. SSE offers BSc, MSc and MBA programs, along with ...

, the spa hotel Yasuragi, Judiska Teatern (The Jewish Theater), Östasieninstitutet (East Asia Institute) and Nyteboden. It has been financed by the

Swedish Institute The Swedish Institute ( sv, Svenska institutet, ) is a government agency in Sweden with the responsibility to spread information about Sweden outside the country. It exists to promote Swedish interests, and to organise exchanges with other co ...

since 2013. The name of the prize was inspired by Martinson's poetry collection ''Cikada'', which was published in 1953 (Cikada is Swedish for the insect family

Cicadidae Cicadidae, the true cicadas, is the largest family of cicadas, with more than 3,200 species worldwide. The oldest known definitive fossils are from the Paleocene, a nymph from the Cretaceous Burmese amber has been attributed to the family, but co ...

). In this collection is also included the first 29 poems of his work ''

Aniara ''Aniara'' ( sv, Aniara : en revy om människan i tid och rum) is a book-length epic science fiction poem written by Swedish Nobel laureate Harry Martinson from 1953 to 1956. It narrates the tragedy of a large passenger spacecraft carrying a c ...

'', "The Song about Doris and Mima". The atomic bombs in Japan, followed by the construction of the world's first

H-bomb A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...

in 1953, had a significant impact on Martinson's writing, which is reflected in ''Aniara''. The prize focuses on East Asian poets, writing in Chinese, Korean, or Japanese, not only because of Martinson's interest in East Asian literature, but also because the initiators of the prize believe poetry written in these languages deserves better recognition.

Prize winners

* The first Cikada Prize (2004) was given to the poet Sô Sakon (1919-2006).http://openjournals.library.usyd.edu.au/index.php/LA/article/view/5370/6064 The prize was presented in connection with the opening of a symposium about Japanese literature at the Yasuragi in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

on 6 August 2004. The prize was given to So Sakon at the Swedish Embassy in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

on 3 September 2004. * The winner of the second Cikada Prize (2005) was Japanese haiku poet Tōta Kaneko. The prize was given to Tōta Kaneko at the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo on 13 December 2005, by the Princess Desirée of Sweden. * 2006 -

Ko Un Ko Un (born 1 August 1933) is a South Korean poet whose works have been translated and published in more than fifteen countries. He had been imprisoned many times due to his role in the campaign for Korean democracy and was later mentioned in K ...

, (born 1933), South Korea *2007 -

Shin Kyeong-nim Shin Kyeong-nim (Hangul: 신경림) is a South Korean writer who is known as a "poet of the people" Life Shin Kyeong-nim was born on April 6, 1936 in North Chungcheong Province, South Korea. When he was young, Shin Kyong-rim frequented the peo ...

, South Korea *In 2008 and 2009 there were no recipients *2010 - Mun Jeonghui, (born 1947), South Korea *In 2011 and 2012 there were no recipients *2013 - Noriko Mizuta (born 1937), Japan *2014 -

Bei Dao Bei Dao (, born August 2, 1949) is the pen name of the Chinese-American writer Zhao Zhenkai (S: 赵振开, T: 趙振開, P: ''Zhào Zhènkāi''). Among the most acclaimed Chinese-language poets of his generation, he is often regarded as a candida ...

(born 1949), China *2015 - Ý Nhi (born 1944), Vietnam *2016 -

Yang Mu Yang Mu ( zh, t=楊牧, p=Yáng Mù, September 6, 1940 – March 13, 2020) was a pen name of Wang Ching-hsien(), a Taiwanese poet, essayist, critic, translator, and Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at the University of Washington, Sea ...

(1940–2020), Taiwan *2017 - Mai Văn Phấn (born 1963), Vietnam *2018 -

Xi Chuan Xi Chuan (Chinese language, Chinese: 西川; born 1963), pen name of Liu Jun (Chinese language, Chinese: 刘军), is a poet, essayist, and translator. He is considered one of the most influential and celebrated contemporary Chinese poetry, Chines ...

(born 1963), China *2019 -

Xi Xi Hsi Hsi/Sai Sai/Xi Xi (; 7 October 1937 – 18 December 2022) was the pseudonym of the Hongkongers, Hong Kong author and poet Cheung Yin, "Ellen"/ (). She was born in Shanghai, and moved to Hong Kong 1949, at the age of twelve. She was formerly ...

(born 1938), Hong Kong *2020 -

Hiromi Itō is one of the most prominent women writers of contemporary Japan, with more than a dozen collections of poetry, several works of prose, numerous books of essays, and several major literary prizes to her name. She divides her time between the to ...

(born 1955), Japan *2021 -

Kim Hyesoon Kim Hyesoon () is a South Korean poet. Life Kim Hyesoon was born in Uljin County, North Gyeongsang Province. She was raised by her grandmother and had tuberculous pleurisy as a child. She received her Ph.D. in Korean literature from Konkuk U ...

(born 1955), South Korea

References

External links

Cikada Prize website
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071006145955/http://www.cikada-priset.se/ , date=6 October 2007 Awards established in 2004 Poetry awards Harry Martinson