The authors received awards at the 2017 award and membership admission ceremony held by Hanoi Writers’Association – Photo by Thu Minh
It is little regrettable that this year there is no award for poetry … All have reasons: Toward the goal of improving the awards’ quality.
Respect for novelty
Commenting on the work “6 Days”, writer Y Ban, Hanoi Writers’ Association Executive Committee Member, Chairman of the Prose Council especially appreciated the creativity and the novelty in expressing the characters’ mood and the language use of writer To Hai Van.
Writer Y Ban said to a reporter from the New Hanoi newspaper, “The work is so impressive by portraying the loneliness of a modern man through a humorous writing, including both old and new techniques and the words of a skilled writer.”
In a more detailed analysis, the head of the Composition Committee, Hanoi Writers’ Association, writer Tran Quang Quy commented, “Using a multi-dimensional structure and space and time integration, writer To Hai Van wrapped up the rich world with uncountable stories which are both tragic and humorous, reasonable but as absurd. “6 Days” by To Hai Van is a beautiful world depicting the fates of the old and current Hanoians. The humour but self-restraint for always stopping at the right time is something that has had little presence in Vietnamese proses.”
Why is there the award for Vu Cong Chien’s first work “A Soldier’s Memory” in addition to official awards? According to Chairman of the Hanoi Writers’ Association Nguyen Thi Thu Hue, this is a timely measure to “recognize and encourage the authors who have left a good impression in their first steps to literature”.
“There were 60 candidates for the Prose Award this year, including nine books to the final round for the Prose Council’s voting, two of which, namely “6 Days” and “A Solider’s Memory” were submitted to the Hanoi Writers’ Association Executive Committee. “6 Days” is worthy to be honored while “A Soldier’s Memory” cannot be ignored. I am impressed with the scope and charm of the work as well as the way of talking about life and death very casually as if it happened every day,” shared writer Y Ban.
Meanwhile, writer Tran Quang Quy said: “The long postwar period is a good time for soldiers who have experienced the war against American to write in a more complete and thorough manner about their past lives and fight. “A Soldier’s Memory” is written in such way. Despite its length of over 700-large-sized pages and small-sized letters, it attracts the audience a lot by its simple, truthful writing and materials on soldiers. There is no shortage of humorous pages featuring soldiers.”
High demand for quality
According to writer Nguyen Thi Thu Hue, all winners must receive 75% or more of the votes instead of more than half as before. Both “6 Days” and “A Soldier’s Memory” got 8 out of 8 votes.
However, it is the 75% rule that made no award for poetry this year because no work met this criterion. In particular, according to Tran Quang Quy, Head of the Composition Committee, although many collections of poems were positively welcomed by the public and advantageous in some certain respect, no works showed the superiority to the common ground or the previous works of the same author to be awarded. 100% of the jury members agreed not to confer the 2017 poetry award.
Writer Tran Quang Quy asserted: “In a common sense, if the works are not qualified enough and do not get more than 75% of the votes, they will not be awarded. It is so regrettable for the poetry award and the poetry situation in 2017”.
Writer Y Ban talked to the reporter from the New Hanoi newspaper: “In fact, the Executive Committee had a fierce fight to reach the decision on the requirement on 50% of votes for membership admission and 75% of votes for the award. We had to consider a lot. When evaluating a work, 50% may be somehow subjective but 75% is definitely more academic because one may not give bribes to two-thirds of the Executive Committee members to make frauds in the award evaluation.
After all, it is required to consider carefully so that the winners deserve the awards. Literary Awards of the Hanoi Writers’ Association have their own quality. As said by writer Y Ban, the top priority is to keep the quality of the awards. That is survival!
It is interesting to note that both the winners of the prose and the first writing awards conferred by the Hanoi Writers’ Association are considered by editor Hoang Anh – head of Hanoi Branch, Tre Publishing House. Answering the reporter from the New Hanoi newspaper, she said, “I think I am very fortunate to have access and contribute to bringing these books to readers. “6 Days” novel shows an unconscious intention as the habit of a long-time writer while “A Soldier’s Memory” attracts the audiences by the truth – making literature reliable, helping readers value the peace”.