The Surging News reporter Luo Xin
On the evening of October 22, the first "Phoenix Literature Award" award ceremony - "Phoenix Literature Night" was held in Nanjing Phoenix Square, and the three "Jury Award" winners of the first "Phoenix Literature Award" were announced on the spot: Lu Min, Luo Weizhang, Ye Mi, and five "Finalist Award" winners: Li Lu, Fu Yuehui, Chang Fang, Guo Ping, Lin Nabei. The eight winners cover all age groups from the "post-60s" to the "post-90s".
Sponsored by Phoenix Publishing and Media Group and organized by Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House, the "Phoenix Literature Award" is for original Chinese literary works, including long novels, long essays, long documentaries and long non-fiction works. All original literary works in Chinese that have not yet been officially published in the Chinese edition of the monograph can participate in the competition. In the end, Lu Min's "Golden River", Luo Weizhang's "Hidden History" and Ye Mi's "Immortality" won the "Jury Award" of the first "Phoenix Literature Award", and the first "Phoenix Literature Award" was vacant.
Lu Min (center) won the award
"Writing for more than twenty years, this is the first time that I have won an award for an unpublished work." At the award ceremony, Lu Min said that the award is innovative and special, "It is still a little challenging for all the participating writers, because most of our writers, before a work is completed, are very shy, inferior and proud, sensitive to a little neurotic, in front of outsiders are basically never mentioning what they are writing." This psychology is probably like a pot of grunting old soup, more than seven or eight years, as little as three or four years, and will not open the lid until the end. It is precisely because of this that I think that the choice of the Phoenix Award, in addition to the text in the process, should also be combined with the professional observation and comprehensive judgment of the writer, full of expectations and encouragement for those of us who write long distances. ”
Li Jingze (right) and Bi Feiyu (left) present ye mi with awards
Ye Mi also believes that this award is very special because it is awarded to works that have not yet been published. After many years of writing, she has thought more about the meaning of literature, or the impact of literature on the future. She thought that imagination is the most valuable part of literature, and from past literary experience, those advanced imaginations will have a positive impact on human life. So today, is it possible for those advanced imaginations in literature to participate in the construction of the future world of mankind? Compared with the rigorous arguments of scientists, where is the imagination of writers? Does the novel's existing writing process and concept of writing have the characteristics of the road to the future? These reflections drive her creation.
Qiu Huadong (left) and Sun Zhenfu (right) presented awards to Luo Weizhang
The Hidden History is one of three novels by Luo Weizhang named "History", the other two being the History of Sound and the History of Silence. "Although the name 'history' is actually just a rhetoric, of course, it can be said that it is a future direction, and the real object of writing is the observation of reality and the analysis of human nature." "Hidden History", as the name suggests, is the revelation of 'hidden facts' or 'hidden facts', but disclosure itself does not constitute an end, and it is the responsibility of the novel as I understand it to have a sincere, solid and equal dialogue with the characters in the work, to share their weaknesses, distresses, fears and even sins, and to jointly repair the mediocrity, lack and mutilation of the spirit. While sharing, we see ourselves and the world we live in more clearly, trying to meet more light. Emotions are sublimated into feelings. When sharing the acceptance speech, Luo Weizhang said.
It is reported that in terms of award criteria, the "Phoenix Literature Award" adheres to the principle of high unity of ideology and artistry, attaches importance to the artistic level of works, advocates the diversification of themes, themes, styles and expression methods, encourages the exploration and innovation of works on the basis of inheriting China's excellent traditional culture and drawing on foreign outstanding cultural achievements, and encourages works to fully display Chinese style and Chinese style.
The nomination process of the first "Phoenix Literature Award" was officially launched in February 2021, and a team of nomination judges composed of 40 contemporary young critics, writers and editors selected a total of 129 works to participate in the competition. In accordance with the provisions of the "Phoenix Literature Award" charter on the conditions for participating works, the award office checks and verifies the qualifications of the participating works one by one, and finally 54 works that meet the conditions enter the evaluation process. From July to August, a preliminary jury team composed of 18 critics and writers, including Wang Zheng, He Ping and Zhu Hui, selected 15 works to participate in the final evaluation and submitted them to the final evaluation committee.
The final evaluation committee is composed of 11 writers and scholars, including Li Jingze, Wu Yiqin, Liang Hongying, Bi Feiyu, Chi Li, Ding Fan, Su Tong, Yang Qingxiang, Xie Youshun, Wang Chunlin, and Jia Mengwei. On October 13, the final appraisal of the first "Phoenix Literature Award" held at the Museum of Modern Chinese Literature in Beijing selected 8 shortlisted works, namely Ye Mi's "Immortality", Guo Ping's "Guangling San", Chang Fang's "River Map", Fu Yuehui's "Chewing Iron Filings", Lu Min's "Golden River", Lin Nabei's "Digging the Ground Every Day", Luo Weizhang's "Hidden History", and Li Lu's "Calling Mirage Island".
Finalist Awards
The final evaluation committee believes that the 8 shortlisted works have their own strengths, especially Lu Min's "Golden River", Luo Weizhang's "Hidden History" and Ye Mi's "Immortality" represent the high standard and characteristics of the times in the current novel writing.
Lu Min's novel "Golden River" writes about the changes in reality in the past forty years, the protagonist Mu Youheng's life looks back, the sins and punishments in the hearts of the children, the fission of human nature after the story of wealth, and the ethical rethinking in the love debate. In these chaotic worlds, the author still insists on telling the power of good and the inconceivability of life.
Luo Weizhang's "Hidden History" is a long novel with major breakthroughs in the theme interpretation and artistic expression of the current Chinese vernacular novel creation, taking the sudden events in the countryside as the starting point, and in the careful conception of the storyline and the change of artistic skills, the complex magnification of human nature in the dying rural society is highlighted under the long lens of the real world.
Ye Mi's novel "Immortality" continues her overall idea of "writing China with Jiangnan", taking the small city of Wuguo City in Jiangnan in 1979 as the environmental background, taking the marriage and love life of female worker Kong Yanni as the main plot, showing the life state and life situation of a group of ordinary people in the era of drastic changes, and presenting the patience, tenacity and enthusiasm of ordinary people, pinning on the author's pursuit of an ideal life and ideal humanity: no matter how ruthless the wheel of history is, but human life flows endlessly.
In addition to the winners, xu Ning, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Jiangsu Provincial CPC Committee, Wang Xingguo, secretary of the party leading group and executive vice chairman of the Jiangsu Provincial Writers Association, Ding Jie, member of the party leading group and vice chairman of the Jiangsu Provincial Writers Association, Gao Min, director of the Literature and Art Department of the Propaganda Department of the Provincial CPC Committee, Li Jingze, Ding Fan, Bi Feiyu, Chi Li, Su Tong, and Jia Mengwei, final judges of the first "Phoenix Literature Award"; Wang Zheng, He Ping, Zhu Hui, Zhang Guangguang, Fu Yuanfeng, Huang Fan, Tong Xin, He Tongbin, Han Songgang, and Li Fan, the final judges of the first "Phoenix Literature Award"; And the first "Phoenix Literature Award" and the nominated judges Wang Zheng, He Ping, Zhu Hui, Zhang Guangguang, Fu Yuanfeng, Huang Fan, Tong Xin, He Tongbin, Han Songgang, and Li Fan, and so on As well as Qiu Huadong, Zhang Qinghua, Han Dong, He Xiangyang, Yue Wen and many other well-known writers and critics.
At the end of the award ceremony, Li Jingze, vice chairman of the China Writers Association, Qiu Huadong, secretary of the Secretariat of the China Writers Association, Liang Yong, chairman of the Phoenix Group, and She Jiangtao, general manager of Phoenix Publishing and Media Co., Ltd., jointly launched the second Phoenix Literature Award.
Li Jingze (second from right), Qiu Huadong (right), Liang Yong (second from left), and She Jiangtao (left) launched the second Phoenix Literature Award.
【Attached】Award speech
Lu Min,"Golden River"
Lu Min's novels always have a spiritual core, which hides the hidden diseases and light of human nature, and also echoes the daily landscape of ruin, barrenness, sadness, intolerance, warmth, and goodness. Small people and big times, ordinary life and destiny legends, there are endless hearts in the details flow, it seems that the soul is naked and wants to talk and stop, Lu Min's writing voice is gentle but not lacking in sharpness, low but tenacious. The novel "Golden River" writes about the real changes in the past forty years, the protagonist Mu Youheng's life looks back, the sins and punishments in the hearts of the children, the fission of human nature after the story of wealth, and the ethical rethinking in the love debate, under these chaotic worlds, Lu Min is still insisting on telling the power of goodness and the inconceivability of life. The values worth circulating must originate from the people, and the glorious personality also stands up in the crowd, and Lu Min's writing seems to reiterate that those who have faded away in the great changes of the times are awakening and rebuilding in many small individuals.
Luo Weizhang's Hidden History
"Hidden History" is a novel with major breakthroughs in the theme interpretation and artistic expression of the current Chinese vernacular novel creation, it is another innovative work of "discovery novel" after Luo Weizhang's novels "History of Sound" and "History of Silence", which soared out of the lyrics of the history of the local soul and the history of faith in the first two novels, and in the careful conception of the storyline and the change of artistic skills, the human nature was placed under the blade of the cold light for the ultimate torture. The distortions of human nature in the dying local society are magnified under the focus of the long lens of the real world.
"Hidden History" takes a mysterious murder case as a window to trace the inner world of the characters, allowing the protagonist Gui Pingchang to enter the trap of story narration, and at the same time opens the channel of self-discovery of human nature, thus going deep into the writing of the character's "hidden facts", allowing humanity to gain new life in the process of self-repair and self-confirmation.
This work not only transcends the theme presentation of many novels of similar themes, but also transcends its own artistic limitations in terms of depiction techniques, especially the portrayal of the psychological world of the characters, and becomes a "meaningful form" that breaks through the traditional paradigm of local novel art - opening up the "hidden history" of people's inner world with a more magnificent concept of time and space.
The proposition and artistic presentation of "Discovery is Existence" in "Hidden History" make it an excellent work that questions human nature at present.
Ye Mi "Immortality"
Ye Mi's novel "Immortality" continues her overall idea of "writing China in Jiangnan" and continues the theme and style of her "Wind Flow Picture Volume". Set in the small city of Wuguo in the late 1970s, the novel takes the marriage and love life of female worker Kong Yanni as the main plot, showing the life status and life of a group of ordinary people in a period of drastic changes.
Ye Mi has no intention of constructing an epic grand narrative, but instead writes the daily trivialities, the entanglement of human feelings and the changes in the world with delicate brushwork. These humble lives interact with the big history and arrive at the inner spirit of history in a secret way.
The patience, tenacity and enthusiasm shown by Kong Yanni and others in life are pinned on the author's pursuit of an ideal life and ideal humanity: no matter how ruthless the wheel of history is, human life flows endlessly. The language of the novel is accurate and vivid, the personalities of the characters are distinct, and the structure is elastic, which fulfills the artistic mission that this novel needs to complete in its personal sense.
Editor-in-charge: Cheng Yu
Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang