Kotryna Zylė wins the Dausa Family Literary Prize
The Dausa Family Literary Prize has been awarded to Kotryna Zylė for THE BONES OF THE BELOVED, recognizing the novel’s original artistic vision and its creative fusion of Lithuanian mythological imagination with a contemporary urban setting.
AWARDS & SELECTIONS
4/24/20261 min read
The Dausa Family Literary Prize has been awarded to our author Kotryna Zylė for her novel THE BONES OF THE BELOVED. Chosen unanimously from nine candidates, Zylė was recognized for the novel’s original artistic vision and its creative fusion of Lithuanian mythological imagination with a contemporary urban setting.
Established by the Lithuanian Canadian Foundation in accordance with the testamentary wishes of Aldona Dausa-Empakeris, the Dausa Family Lithuanian Literature Prize supports and promotes Lithuanian writers and literature. The annual prize recognizes outstanding prose works in three categories: original fiction written in Lithuanian, original fiction translated into Lithuanian, and first books by emerging authors.
The third Dausa Family Lithuanian Literature Prize ceremony took place on April 21, 2026, at the Lithuanian Writers’ Union in Vilnius. The ceremony brought together authors, translators, publishers, members of the literary community, and representatives of the Lithuanian Canadian Foundation to celebrate this year’s laureates. Alongside Kotryna Zylė, the other laureates recognized at the ceremony were Antanas Šileika and Kristina Aurylaitė, winners in the translated fiction category, and Darius Žiūra, winner in the debut book category, highlighting the strength and diversity of contemporary Lithuanian literature.
Kotryna Zylė’s THE BONES OF THE BELOVED tells the life story of Ona, a woman whose 63-year journey is shaped by love, loss, memory, and the bones of the three men she keeps in her closet. Blending coming-of-age and love story traditions with Lithuanian mythology, the novel creates a remarkable world where ancient rituals and an agrarian worldview coexist with the realities of contemporary Vilnius apartment blocks. Through Ona’s relationships with her father, her neighbour Lukas, the wise Motė, and Mikas, the husband she wins in a lottery and comes to love deeply, the novel explores the many forms of love, grief, and the ways in which they continue to shape our lives.
