After the final evaluation list of the sixth "Youth Literature Award" was announced, many participating authors contacted the organizing committee and hoped to seek the opinions and suggestions of the tutors in the preliminary evaluation stage so that they could be improved in the future. The organizing committee summarized everyone's questions, and the preliminary evaluation tutors of each group also gave overall comments in a targeted manner, hoping to provide certain help for the participating authors in the future literary road.
Short story 1 group tutor Cao Kou
Cao Kou: Formerly known as Zhao Changxi, born in Nanjing in 1977. The first phase of Nanjing "Youth Literature Talent Program" signed a novelist, Nanjing Hundred Outstanding Cultural and Artistic Talents, published a number of novels such as "Lying Down will be Comfortable", "Song of the Golden Chain Hanzi", "In the County Town", a long "Seventeen Chronology", an essay collection "Life Film" and "My Skeleton" two volumes. He has won the Novella Award of the 5th Purple Mountain Literature Award and the Novella Award of 2018 in Selected Novels. In addition, the film screenwriting work "Film Police Baoyin" won the Best Screenplay Award at the 4th German Chinese Film Festival.
As a preliminary judge, my personal feelings are:
1． The literary enthusiasm of the participants was touching. It can be seen that most of the participants have deep literary feelings, extensive and deep reading experience, and vigorous writing energy. There are various tributes to the reading of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign literary masters, and fashion writing can maintain a certain distance, and in terms of writing energy, the length is very strong, such as many novellas of nearly 100,000 words. Although it is difficult to read, I sincerely admire it.
2． The text level is not as immature as I expected, and some of the works are quite mature and sophisticated, and I privately think that it is no worse than the famous writers and literary newcomers seen in the journal. And the entries did not have too much utilitarian pursuit, reflecting a certain purity, which is also stronger than the common journal works.
3． There are not many works that truly describe real life and real emotions. Avoidance or some kind of indifference to the present moment is regrettable. This is not about what form to adopt, there is no distinction between "isms", but a kind of literary attention. Of course, this may be because of my personal preference, or it may be that I have lost sight of it.
4． Another is to apologize: omissions or injustices are the proper meaning of such awards, and we hope that the relevant authors will tolerate Haihan. And please continue on your path and wish to write your own satisfactory work.
Short story 2 group tutor He Tongbin
He Tongbin: Born in March 1981, he is a contracted critic of the first "Youth Literature Talent Program" in Nanjing, and is currently the deputy editor-in-chief of Zhongshan Magazine. He is the author of the commentaries "The Floating Night's Watchman", "Rebuilding Youth", "History is the Spiritual Disaster" and so on. He has won more than ten awards, such as the first prize of the First Zijin Literary and Art Criticism Award of Jiangsu Province, the Newcomer Award of the Fifth Purple Mountain Literature Award of Jiangsu Province, the Literary Criticism Award of the Sixth Purple Mountain Literary Award of Jiangsu Province, the Annual Excellent Paper Award of "Literary and Art Controversy", the first prize of the Seventh "Yangtze River Cup" Literary Criticism Award, the "Jinling Literature Award" Award (Literary Review), the "Young Talents Award" of the Seventh Nanjing Literature and Art Award, etc., and was selected into the "Youth Literary Talent Program" (Category I) in Nanjing, and the 100 Outstanding Cultural Talents of Nanjing in 2017. He was appointed as the executive secretary of the China (Nanjing) Literary Capital Promotion Center in 2017, the deputy director of the Expert Committee of the Nanjing Art Foundation in 2019, and the special expert of nanjing Shenchuang World "Literary Capital".
The subject matter is very extensive, not limited to the limitations of the previous types of college students writing youth growth, dare to do a grand historical observation ("Dyeing Mirror", "Living", "Long Kanto Go", "Raising Sorghum") and sharp reality criticism ("History of Explosion", "Born", "Tea King"), the works travel between the words of history/reality, city/countryside, male/female, etc., with the local ("History of Explosion", "Dry Plains", "Born", "Live"), family ("Don't Forget Me", "Long Pass East"), growth ("Sunflower with Fox's Face"), The diverse novel genres such as detective suspense ("Shadow on the Other Shore") and avant-garde experiment ("Non-existence") show the mature stylistic awareness of the contemporary college student writing group, the diversified artistic techniques, and the courage to challenge the difficulty of art and touch the hard reality, with a rare reading vision, humanistic feelings and abundant imagination. Of course, as a young writer, in many themes and types of writing attempts, there are obvious traces of imitation and jerkiness, works that manipulate a large span of historical time and space, the rhythm of the narrative is still a bit blunt, and the stability and stylization of language need to be further improved.
Short story 3 group tutor Zhu Jing
Zhu Jing: Young writer, graduated from the College of Literature of Nanjing University, currently teaching at the College of Literature of Nanjing Normal University, and a contracted novelist of the second "Youth Literature Talent Program" in Nanjing. In 2019, he published the collection of novels "For example"
The overall quality of the works participating in the selection is high, and the best works are frequently produced. "Grandma" and "Into the Ground" have a particularly moving and realistic record of rural life. Rhapsody 1993 uses a juvenile perspective to blend a strong desire for self-interpretation without hiding one's talents. "Life and Death on the Swing" unfolds with an almost genius imagination, and the author shows promising potential. "Heart Attack" is a masterpiece, the language and structure are seemingly ordinary, because of the insight into the heart of the lover and touching. Also with a moving texture are "Father's Tomatoes" and "Uncle and Sister-in-Law", the latter of which is particularly unique in language. "Wuxiang Hongzhuang" is a very wonderful one, the author has constructed a unique novel space, and the language has a wonderful texture. "Take Me to the Top of the Mountain" and "The Way Home" present a kind of mature writing that is close to reality, sophisticated and complete, while "Confessions" and "Painted Island" are full of whimsy and present the multiple possibilities of the text. Monsters and Mulan Boat also write a certain mystery outside the real world on a similar path. "The Art of Photography" is an unforgettable work, and the strange story setting has the author's boldness and determination to control. "Life" is a nuclear boat record of the human heart in a very small space, while "The Long Farewell" tries to connect the wider world in time and space. How to deal with our relationship with reality, the courage to face the truth of exploration or the aesthetic light beauty are all choices of the writer, and the richness that strives to present also requires a broader vision and a more inclusive literary concept to reach, and also requires the writer's honesty about himself.
Novel Group Instructor Li Dan
Li Dan: Doctor of Literature of Nanjing University, Postdoctoral Fellow of School of Art, Southeast University, and Associate Professor of School of Art, Nanjing University. His main research areas are Chinese contemporary literature and art, and he is also engaged in literary and art criticism. He has published many papers in first-class academic journals and written monographs such as "The Fourth Volume of the Historical Materials of Contemporary Chinese Literary Criticism (1977-1983)". He is a distinguished researcher of the Museum of Modern Chinese Literature, the training object of the fifth "333 High-level Talent Training Project" in Jiangsu Province, and the contracted critic of the second phase of the "Youth Literature Talent Program" in Nanjing; his academic achievements have won the "Tang Han Youth Literature Research Award", "The First Prize for Outstanding Achievements in Philosophy and Social Sciences in Jiangsu Province", "The First Prize for Outstanding Papers in the Academic Conference of Philosophy and Social Sciences in Jiangsu Province", etc.
The candidates fully present a bipolar look, in this pyramid of creation, the pedestal-level works are written on the subject of personal experience, and the spire-level works show a very diverse choice of subject matter, while relatively excellent works often appear in the latter. All the candidates have a not weak linguistic expression, and their rhetorical richness and sensitivity make this batch of novels like the soil and seeds after the rain, extremely vibrant and powerful. "Emotion" and "experience" provide a huge impetus to the candidates, they are the main source of nutrition for this batch of novels, and a small number of works actively withdraw from "emotion" and "experience". Thus, "abstinence" and "non-abstinence" constitute the dividing line between the "spire" and the "base of the tower." Human life is huge, continuous, and incomprehensible, and all fiction writers try to draw coordinates and provide guidance. Those writers who break free from the limitations of personal experience take the lead in the journey of boat crossing the sea, revealing to the reader the warm ocean and undercurrent of the human world. And those writers who have not yet come out of their personal experience do not need to worry, writing novels is always crossing people and crossing themselves, one thought in the forest, one thought in the mountain.
Prose group instructor Han Songgang
Han Songgang: Doctor of Literature, Invited Researcher of the Museum of Modern Chinese Literature, Member of Nanjing Literary and Art Critics Association, mainly engaged in the study of contemporary Chinese literature, author of the review collection "The Expression of Reality" and "Acquiescence of Lies", and is currently working in the Creative Research Office of Jiangsu Writers Association.
The works of the prose group mainly have the following characteristics: First, in terms of writing content, most of the works still stay in the youthful writing of hometowns, homelands, memories of deceased people and personal life experiences, overemphasizing and highlighting the "individual", while ignoring the deep connection between the individual and history and reality. Second, in terms of content performance, most of the works are still a straightforward and frank emotional outpouring, or indulging in youth memories, or obsessed with local customs, or lost in uncontrollable emotions, lacking comprehensive thinking about life, life and survival. Third, in terms of expression techniques, the lack of stylistic and formal innovation consciousness, almost all of which are flat and direct inertial writing, making this writing boring and tedious, coupled with the lack of language cultivation, but also greatly reducing the aesthetics of the prose itself. Overall, prose writing is still not obviously groundbreaking or innovative for these young writers. The prose group initially evaluated 183 works, and finally selected 40 finalists. The criteria for the shortlisted works are to reflect the concentration and thinking of young writers in prose writing to the greatest extent possible, and to avoid a kind of writing that is too self-ego, emotionally exaggerated, and not carved.
Poetry group instructor Fu Yuanfeng
Fu Yuanfeng: Professor of the School of Letters of Nanjing University, doctoral supervisor
In the comparative reading of poetry, there must be a strong personal reading taste. Poetry reading is only right and wrong within a certain range. For example, if you've always been aware that you're writing a learned "work" and you realize that you're competing to beat your opponents, not because a piece makes you feel the urge to share—such poems usually show your tone. I don't like this type of work, it tends to carry self-righteous clichés that look like it's lyrical, but almost nothing is said. Usually read a few lines and you can see that it comes from a kitsch and not self-aware soul. I think that words that originate from skill and existing emotional knowledge are wrong. On the contrary, it is true. Therefore, I will not hesitate to weed out works that look like poetry and are anti-poetic.
If you carry this cliché, but show the urge to try to speak up. You suddenly arise at a moment, detached from what others say, and come to a valley of your own soul: you are shocking and independent in just one moment, but you have your own passion, and I will ask you to stay and continue to flow on this river.
The words that move me as soon as I open my mouth, I want to thank its author. Because in the selection, a special reader who seems to hold power also needs to breathe, struggle and survive. Those masterpieces are the food for reading and continuing life. There are many poems that can be called masterpieces in this competition. The awards for Youth were great and convinced these authors that they probably didn't care if they would win or not, they did, they didn't write such good words.
Organizational structure
Organizer: Youth Magazine
Guiding unit: Jiangsu Writers Association
Peking University Institute of Chinese Poetry, Beijing Normal University International Writing Center, Fudan University Chinese Department, East China Normal University Chinese Creative Writing Research Institute, Jilin University College of Literature, Nanjing University College of Literature, Nanjing Normal University College of Literature, Nankai University College of Literature, Sichuan University College of Literature, Shandong University College of Literature, Shaanxi Normal University College of Literature, Soochow University College of Literature, Yunnan University School of Literature, Zhejiang University Chinese Department, Chinese Min University International Writing Center, Sun Yat-sen University Chinese Department
(College guidance units are sorted alphabetically by the name of the university)
Editorial policy of "Youth": cutting-edge, inclusive and diverse
The magazine recruits excellent original novels, poems, essays, and review manuscripts from the society, and welcomes writers with a spirit of exploration and literary pursuits to submit articles.
Fiction: [email protected]
Poetry: [email protected]
Essays, comments: [email protected]
Postal code: 28-11