Paata Shamugia

Paata Shamugia - born March 1983

Paata Shamugia (in Georgian: პაატა შამუგია) is a Georgian poet. His texts, according to Georgian literary scholars, comprise a high amount of self-irony and sometimes strange linguistic performances as well. In 2015 he became the first Georgian poet be awarded SABA Literary Prize twice.

After publishing his début poem Panther's Skin in 2006 (in which he countered the so-called "Georgian Bible" The Knight in the Panther's Skin), he gained the attention of the Georgian public. The book sparked controversy in the Georgian press and several Georgian parliament members demanded to ban the book because of its “harmful behavior” and disrespect of tradition. Members of the Radical Orthodox Parents’ Union published a letter concerning Shamugia in the newspaper “Asaval-Dasavali”, in which they asked to Georgian Orthodox Church to pronounce him an anathema.

In 2010, Shamugia published the book Preference, which was well received by critics.

In 2015, the publishing-house INTELEKTI published Shamugia's book Schizo-National Anthems, for which he received the Saba Literary Prize of Georgia for the second time. The Greek translation of Schizo-National Anthems became a Greek bestseller and the Greek Esquire included it among the 10 favorite books of the Greek reader.

Biography

Paata Shamugia was born in Abkhazia and graduated from the philological faculty at Tbilisi State University. Since 2018, Paata Shamugia has been a president of PEN Georgia.

Shamugia's poems are translated in more than 20 languages.

Rewards

2012 - Paata Shamugia won the Saba Literary Prize and his book Acatiste was named as the best book of the year.

2012 - The art magazine Hot Chocolate named Paata Shamugia the person of the year.

2015 - Paata Shamugia won Saba Literary Prize for the second time and his book Schizo-National Anthems was named as the best book of the year.