Skopje, 15 March 2022 (MIA) — “The Day of the Worm” by Simona Jovanoska has won the 2021 Novel of the Year award, contest organizers Slavko Janevski Foundation announced at a news conference Tuesday, saying the book was a “literary symphony in which many elements engage in dialogue with each other, moving away at times before coming closer together to reunite into a meaningful whole.” "The Day of the Worm" is Jovanovska's second book. She said she wrote it shortly after the pandemic started. She had given birth to her second child, she said, and she started writing to help herself channel her thoughts during a tough time. A panel of five judges (Vladimir Jankovski, chair; Katica Garoska Aceska; Ermis Lafazanovski, Liljana Pandeva; and Katerina Bogoeva) chose the winning novel out of 39 entries submitted to the book contest. Jankovski said Jovanoska's novel had many layers and an abundance of “style, literary procedure, and narrative tone, with humor, irony, and subtle parody being just some of the strategies the author uses to enrich the reading experience.” He added that three other novels made the final shortlist for the annual prize given to the best Macedonian novel published in the previous year: "The Nights We Fell Asleep in Pompeii" by Davor Stojanovski, "Desa" by Ivana Trajanoska, and "Vengeance Day" by Ivica Chelikovikj. Slavko Janevski Foundation executive director Zvezdan Georgievski said he was proud of the Novel of the Year prize’s 23 years. He said it had been awarded to both established authors and newcomers, helping them find a wider readership. Over the past five years, Komercijalna Banka has sponsored the award, which consists of a statuette, a plaque, and Mden 150,000. Between 1999 and 2017, the Novel of the Year award was given by Utrinski vesnik. After the newspaper’s demise, Slavko Janevski Foundation took over the book contest. mr/