Regulation

MECENAT.KZ Annual Literary Prize for the best novel about modern Kazakhstan is an independent, non-political, civil project of a group of citizens of Kazakhstan, patriots of the country and literary professionals.

The organizers of the competition are not responsible for any coincidences with real people and events in the works of the Authors.

Purpose of the Prize

Development and expansion of Kazakh literature into the world literary space through the identification of social ideals in modern Kazakh literature, stimulating literary creativity, searching for new vectors of cultural development, new directions of cross-cultural influence.

A major prose form is preferred because the novel is the most socially significant form of modern literature.

2. Objectives of the Prize

• identification of new Kazakhstani novelists capable of entering the world literary space
• formation of a public need for fiction
• emergence of alternative literary competitions, festivals, fairs

3. Form of the Prize

The winners of the competition receive a lifetime payment of at least 500 USD per month in the form of a transfer to the winner`s personal account in the national currency KZT at the estimated rate on the day of transfer. The Prize is not inherited. The Prize is awarded once in a lifetime, past winners are not eligible to participate in future competitions.

4. The main principle of the Prize

Maximum objectivity and democratic decision-making process.

5. Selection rules

• working languages ​​of the works submitted to the competition are Kazakh and Russian.
• high standards of the Kazakh and Russian languages.
• genre - only a novel.
• memoirs are not accepted.
• the work must not have been previously published anywhere, including the Internet.
• no plagiarism.
• size - at least 80 pages of text; long works are downloaded by the participants to the project server in one file in Microsoft Word format (Microsoft Word file, font Times New Roman no. 12, single line spacing). The participant of the competition himself is responsible for the correctness of his application, for the speed of the Internet, the presence of a computer, the ability to use the software.
• providing organizers when registering their own and additional (close relatives) telephones for communication and email.
• works under a pseudonym are not accepted.
• the most thorough literary professionalism in composition, stylistics, design and authenticity of artistic details.
• to give the readers hope.
• refusal from the abundance of obscene language, from the actual advertising of suicidal tendencies of a person, or the consumption of harmful substances, but at the same time not to fall into the propaganda of one or another ideology, or advertising of organizations and commercial brands, extremist propaganda. It is also worth avoiding the unnecessary mention of Kazakhstan’s presidents - the country needs novels about the people, not presidents. These manuscripts are pre-edited by specially hired readers.
• a group of readers are citizens of Kazakhstan working in professions: professional literary critics, or chief editors of republican literary publishing houses, or responsible secretaries of republican literary journals, lecturers of literature in the largest universities of Kazakhstan and the world.
• search for new and enrichment of traditional art forms
• a combination of deep philosophy with popularity and attractiveness for the general reader
• unleashing the creative potential of interaction between the cultures of the various nationalities living in Kazakhstan
• the plot must be within the period from 1900 to the present, any time period of any length within this period
• the main place of action of the work should be Kazakhstan
• attractiveness for foreign readers, potential for publication in the best foreign publishing houses and "thick" magazines
• any genre of the novel (children`s, fantastic, historical, poetic, etc.). If the novel is in the historical genre, then it should be based on archival documents.
• Manuscripts will not be reviewed and returned
• the contestants fully agree with participation in events for the media, give consent to the first edition in case of victory, the copyright remains fully with them
• if possible, potential for film adaptation in cinema, for TV, radio and theatrical adaptations
• there can be only one participant who submitted an application, since applications in co-authorship are also not accepted.
• the prize is annual and is awarded only to one work in the state or Russian languages
• works of authors-citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan are accepted for participation in the competition for the Prize.
• voting is made only on the site of the Prize
• Only citizens of Kazakhstan can submit works and vote. For this they must be authorized by SMS. In doing so, they must consent to the storage and processing of their personal data on the Prize site.
• the organizer of the Prize, its staff and non-staff employees, readers, and their family members are not eligible to participate in the competition.
• at the start and end of voting, novels published by a separate edition with ISBN or BBC are not allowed to participate in the competition, in traditional publishing houses or on electronic book sales services such as Amazon, Ridero.
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• manuscripts of novels published no earlier than January 1, 2021 in literary journals, personal blogs of authors or on network literary sites (Samizdat, AuthorToday) that do not perform the functions of a publishing house and do not imply the transfer of exclusive rights to publish to this journal by the author or network project
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• volume: at least 5 author`s pages - this is 200 thousand characters with spaces, this is the minimum volume for a novel.
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6. Voting mechanics

• start voting
• wide public announcement
• during 120-150 days from the date of the announcement of the Prize, non-anonymous applications are collected through the Prize site at mecenat.kz or maecenas.kz or mecenatkz.com
• manuscripts of novels and stories in electronic form (Word format) with a volume of at least 80 pages are not reviewed and are not returned, they are uploaded to the server directly by the applicant in full, and then, after moderation by readers, are automatically posted on the site on the day the voting starts.
• voting lasts 4 weeks
• readers pre-screen applications that violate the Competition Regulations
• the authors of the rejected works will receive a short notice of the reason for the refusal to register the application.
• after an open registration in the role of "Reader" (the participants of the competition cannot vote on the site), readers, under their real full names, vote for the works of the participants they liked. Only one vote can be cast.
• the procedure is publicly available online, i.e. The number of votes for each application is constantly visible, and you can see the full name of those who voted, without the rest of the identification data. The transparency of the competition is thus monitored cross-wise by the organizers, the literary community and public opinion.
• if the readers made a mistake, and it was proved that the participant`s work contains plagiarism, or in any other way contradicts the selection rules in this Regulation, the organizers have the right to disqualify this application without consent and warning.
• the winner is determined by the one whose work received the maximum votes of Kazakhstanis. The winner signs an agreement confirming that he accepts the prize with gratitude, participates in the closing ceremony of the Prize, autograph sessions for readers and unconditionally accepts the first version of the translation ordered by the organizers.
• the winning text will be translated into Russian (if the novel is originally written in Kazakh), or into Kazakh (if the novel is originally written in Russian). This work is ordered by the organizers of their own free will, the winner does not interfere in this process, he will be sent a file with the first version of the translation.