The Writers Union designated the best authors and the best book titles for 2011 within the Prize Gala on June 15. The best eight books were chosen by a jury consisting of seven writers. The jury’s head Ana Bantos has told Info-Prim Neo that they took into account the originality of the books. “We had a series of meetings and took into account the jury’s opinion. We voted objectively and put emphasis on the new formulas in poetry, prose and essay,” she stated. There were selected books in the following categories: poetry; prose’ literary criticism and essay; literature for children; publicity; translation; journal, letters, memories, and debut of the year Writer Ion Ciocanu, who won the Omnia Prize for the volume “Cartile din noi”, said that he knows what value is. “I say it not only because I’m a critic. I’m also a self-critic and I would like to thank Vasile Coroban whose criticism made me more attentive to what I wrote,” he stated. Prizes were also offered to Anatol Ciocanu – the Excellence Prize, Lucretia Barladeanu and Andrei Burac – the Cultural Relations Prize, Dumitru Matcovschi, Oleg Serebrian, Nicolae Fabian and Editura Silvius Libris – the Special Prize. Attending the event, Prime Minister Vlad Filat said that he wants the Writers Union to be united and, besides promoting the cultural values, to take care of its members. Within the event, there were awarded also creation scholarships for a period of 12 months. Harlambie Moraru, Iulian Ciocan, Galina Trifan and Boris Schitsko received scholarships of 24,000 lei for works that they will write in the period.