Today, October 2, the short lists of Dmitry Zimin’s Prosvetitel and Prosvetitel.Perevod Awards became known. The jury selected 16 best books — both written in Russian and translated.
"The main feeling is regret that it's impossible to support all talented authors, so we had to compromise. I wish there was one more place in the nomination, or even two more... The popular science genre is borderline. There's no impenetrable line separating a brightly written book by a scientist and a deeply researched work of a popularizer, so choosing the strongest is hard", — said Alexander Arkhangelsky, the chairman of the jury for the Prosvetitel Award.
The eight best translated popular science books — finalists for the Prosvetitel.Perevod Award — were selected by a jury headed by chairman Oleg Voskoboynikov: "The choice was insidiously hard: almost all the books on the long list won't let you go till the last page. Translations from English, Chinese, Swedish laid out the entire circle of earth to the jury. We had to argue about the field affiliation of several masterpieces because of the interpenetration of exact and not so exact sciences. But despite all the excitement and difficulties, we did it — all contenders for the main prize can make our world a better place.”
After the discussion, the short list included books on misleading statistics, heredity, political emotions, and personal and social thought in Nazi Germany.
You can find short lists here.
It was announced earlier this month that five books were shortlisted for the PolitProsvet special award. On November 16, the finalists and the jury will meet via teleconference between Moscow and Berlin to announce the winners.