Struga, 28 August 2022 (MIA) — The Struga Poetry Evenings festival’s traditional Bridges poetry reading at the Bridge of Poetry will close this year’s gathering of some 20 local and 30 international poets in Struga. At the closing ceremony, Japanese composer and pianist Kensaku Tanikawa will accept the Golden Wreath, the festival’s main prize given to a poet for his complete oeuvre, on behalf of his father, Shuntarō Tanikawa. The Miladinov Brothers award, given to the best poetry book by a Macedonian poet published since the previous year’s SPE, will go to Zoran Anchevski’s “Confused Compasses.” The UNESCO-sponsored Bridges of Struga award for a debut poetry collection will be awarded to Gerardo Masuccio for his “Fin qui visse un uomo.” On Saturday evening, the 2022 Golden Wreath winner’s son read Tanikawa’s poems and performed pieces inspired by his father’s poetry at the Poetry Portrait reading in honor of the laureate at Ohrid’s St. Sophia church. Ahead of the official opening of the 61st SPE on Aug. 25, he also planted a tree sapling in the Poetry Park in honor of Tanikawa who is not attending the festival due to his advanced age. He is in his nineties. mr/