Five months ago, lay0ut magazine launched the Certamen Poeticum Nubicentauricum, the most ambitious creative writing competition in Latin that the Internet has ever seen. It was a leap into the unknown, both for us editors and judges, as we couldn’t predict its success, and for the participants who managed to tame their fantastic insights into a challenging language, delving into the classics and dictionaries.
Thanks to all who were willing to take up the challenge. We received Latin texts from eight different countries (Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Poland, Bulgaria, UK, USA), spanning a wide range of genres, from epistles to poetic prose, from short stories to lyrics, from experimental poems to those in classical meters. With your verses, you have given voice to prehistoric deities, witches, and murderers, dying astronauts, Egyptian priests, magical objects, and characters from ancient myth and literature. We are delighted to have intercepted – and in the best cases, encouraged – the need to break the mold, hacking Latin culture to breathe new life into it.
It’s time for both you and us to reap the benefits.
Results
The jury of the Certamen Poeticum Nubicentauricum, composed of Gianluca Furnari, Yasmin Haskell, Alexis Hellmer, Milena Minkova, Victoria Moul, Flavio Santi, Massimo Scorsone, has concluded the evaluation process. From the combination of votes and discussions among the judges, the following podium has emerged:
General Category
2nd place: John Lambert, De occultis Lexintoniae (vel Athenarum Occidentalium) rebus poema didascalicum
1st place: Stefano Vittori, Arcanum XVIII
Under-20 Category
1st place: Dimitar Dimitrov, Leucophron et Pantaglossus
The jury has awarded the following honorable mention:
Best composition in non-classical meters: L. Mouchenier, Κλώθουμαι
Winners and mentioned participants will be contacted by the editorial team of lay0ut magazine in preparation for the award ceremony, for which details will be provided in the coming weeks following email correspondence with the aforementioned authors.
All participants in the Certamen will soon receive an assessment sheet containing a brief assessment of their text(s). We reserve the possibility of discussing with some authors (both mentioned and not) the option of publishing their works in an episode of Neolatina, our online column on Latin texts composed from the Middle Ages to the present day.
