Skopje, 21 March 2023 (MIA) – Irish poet Gavin Bradley is this year’s winner of the "Bridges of Struga" award with his debut volume of poems titled Separation Anxiety. The "Bridges of Struga" is an international award awarded by the Struga Poetry Evenings Festival alongside UNESCO for best debut poetry book in the world. Macedonian poet Vlada Uroshevikj won this year's "Golden Wreath" .

The award winners were announced at the event held on Tuesday, organized by Struga Poetry Evenings, the Macedonian PEN Center, ThNee Writers Association of Macedonia and the National University Library St Clement of Ohrid, which was held in the library in honor of World Poetry Day, March 21, and the 100-year-anniversary since Aco Shopov’s birth, which lands simultaneously with the formal announcement of SPE laureates at the UNESCO HQ in Paris, within the program of the international symposium in honor of the 100-year-anniversary since Aco Shopov’s birth.

Elizabeta Sheleva, President of the Management Board of SPE, announced Vlada Uroshevikj as the winner of the "Golden Wreath" and said that his name is synonymous with “passionate lover of the written word”, one who is dedicated to the seductive magic of literary creation, and one who is faithful to the written word despite all temptations of the modern age.

She said that he remains consistent and recognizable for his creative layer of fantasy and surrealism.

Struga Poetry Evenings Management Board member Vladimir Martinovski said that Separation Anxiety is Gavin Bradley’s touching debut in which the poet explores the emotional tax that comes from various kinds of separation. Separation from one’s partner, from friends, a previous sense of self, our home and those we’ve left behind. The poems about immigration and the poet’s separation from Northern Ireland, the poet’s homeland, are especially poignant.

Gavin Bradley is an Irish poet who moved to Canada in 2012, where he writes and works as a junior paleontology lecturer at the University of Alberta. He has been published on both sides of the Atlantic and his poetry was also included in the 2019-2021 Anthology of Best British and Irish Poets.

“This is an extremely coherent and rich book, full of layers. These intimate poems get personal through a myriad of people and places, from dock workers to dogs, from coastlines to volcanoes and “tender lips that buzz like beehives”. Gavin Bradley’s poems depict permanent love for people, or one’s language and the country. In that sense, Separation Anxiety is hopeful,” Martinovski said.