The Surging News reporter Luo Xin
On October 11th, the first "Short Story Biennial Award" award ceremony and short story forum was held at Sinan Literature House, and Sinan, the highland of Literature and Publishing in Shanghai, ushered in another "highlight moment". On the same day, six copies of the first series of the Novel Industry Library were also released.
Although the list of winners of the inaugural Biennial Award for Short Stories was announced in September, the announcement of the first prize was retained until the awards ceremony. Announced on the spot, the first prize of this year's "Short Story Biennial Award" was awarded to Dong Xia Qingqing's "Under the Kocharit Mountain".
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The first "Short Story Biennial Award" award ceremony. Video Editing by Cheng Qianqian (02:01)
The award speech reads: "'Under the Kocharit Hill' builds a unique texture of life and literary virtue in a language of simplicity, moderation, and personal characteristics, and the writer exercises the power of the grand parade of the outer world, while maintaining the sensitivity and agility of the inner world explorer, and wherever he goes, people steeply rise to an understanding and sublime, but they can also be bound by reasonable sky boundaries." The novel embodies the author's trustworthy sense of proportion in narrative and the gesture of opening up to the complex world. ”
Dong Xia Qingqing was surprised and surprised that his work won the first prize. She joined the army in 2005 and has lived and worked in Xinjiang for ten years. She said: "This honor belongs to my comrades who have been stationed on the frontier. I will continue to work hard to write about the cutest people on the front line in the new era. ”
After the award ceremony, the five winners of the first "Short Story Biennial Award",— Emma, Dong Xia Qingqing, Zhao Song, Wang Suxin, and Zhang Lingling—also had three wonderful conversations with several writers from afar, Yi Zhou, Zhang Chu, Xiao Jianghong, Li Hao, Zhong Qiushi, Zhe Gui, and Dongjun, around "Reconstructing Short Story Reading." Zhang Dinghao, Jin Li, and Muye hosted three dialogues respectively, and their topics involved "how to define short stories outside the length", "what kind of short stories they like", "what observations do you have on the ecology of short stories at present", "what difficulties have been encountered in novel writing", "how to better enter the state of novel writing", "whether you care about the reader's acceptance of text experiments, and whether there are really novels that are appreciated by both elegant and popular".
Group photo of the five winners of the inaugural Biennial Award for Short Stories. The full text is courtesy of the event organizers.
Enrich the creative style of Chinese short stories
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of Novel Circle Magazine and the 5th anniversary of sinan Literature Anthology Magazine. In order to encourage and promote the creation of short stories by contemporary young writers and enrich the creative style of Chinese short stories, the first "Biennial Award for Short Stories" jointly sponsored by Shanghai People's Publishing House and Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, and undertaken by the editorial department of "Novel Circle" and Sinan Literary Anthology Magazine kicked off this year.
The selection covers short stories published in The Novel Circle and Sinan Literary Anthology from 2017 to 2020. Fang Yan, Huang Dehai, Huang Ping, Jin Li, Lu Nei, Li Weichang, MuYe, Tang Weijie, Xiao Bai, Xiang Jing, Zhang Dinghao, these 11 novelists, critics and scholars selected 5 award-winning works from the 30 short stories shortlisted for the long list, namely: Emma's "White-eared Night Heron", Dong Xiaqing's "Under the Kocharit Mountain", Zhao Song's "Park", Wang Suxin's "Next to the Desert Island", and Zhang Lingling's "May Will End". The 5 writers together received a total of 170,000 yuan in prize money.
The latest issue of The Novel World
The latest issue of Sinan Literature Anthology
Qiao Xiaohua, executive editor of "Novel Circle", told the surging news reporter that this year is the first time to hold the "Short Story Biennial Award", and the 5 award-winning works are from the 70, 80, and 90 generations of writers, it can be said that from the theme to the style, they are completely different, like a multi-voice chorus. "Although they do not reflect the whole picture, these works also provide us with a cross-section of the current Chinese short story creation, from which we can see the different ripples or sparks of social changes and the spirit of the times stirring up in the writer's heart." And that's exactly what we want to see. ”
In the view of Huang Dehai, deputy editor of sinan Literary Anthology, the excellence of good short stories is that it is exactly what you did not expect, "what we can expect is the works that we already have in our aesthetic inertia, and those that we do not expect are beyond our aesthetics, and at the same time bring us something new." In this way, it is not that we do not emphasize the technical aspects of the novel, on the contrary, the short story I like, in fact, I very much hope that it is exquisite, rigorous, and complex, so that it can drive us to recognize the complex social reality, and in the midst of the complexity, we can vaguely see the possibility of upward mobility. ”
About the novel, what they want to say
In the forum, Emma listed two of her favorite short stories, one is Lu Xun's "Medicine", which shows Emma the national nature of that historical period, which is like a swamp; the other is Kafka's "Page of the Past", "The streets and alleys of the city were occupied by barbarians from the north overnight, 'they' and 'we' did not speak the language, and what they did was frightening and helpless." No one knows what will happen next. In my opinion, this novel has done everything. ”
Zhao Song believes that the possibility of a novelist depends on how he creates a new experience in the form of words, "if the novel cannot provide the reader with a completely new experience, it may not be true." This is a responsibility, reality is very complex, time and life are very limited, many times the intensity of life experience is the meaning of life. So what kind of intensity can be reached in a short story in a limited period of time and space, which is very similar to the state and logic of life itself. ”
Short Story Forum
He hopes to be able to maintain a constant vigilance in his writing, "For novelists, there is no possibility without difficulty." You may be 'dead' when you feel comfortable, and your writing may continue while you are still in pain. ”
Dong Xia Qingqing remembered one of her business trips, and when she saw a migrant worker sister who was doing the maintenance of the "ground nest", she went up to ask. The eldest sister said a sentence that Dong Xia Qingqing remembered vividly: "Without a common destiny, there is no common language." ”
"Many writers will have the desire that, although everyone has different life experiences, always hope to put life into the text as much as possible as real and thorough as possible, so that more people can see, even if the reader has not lived such a life, but at least can produce more understanding." Like Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, he was a famous writer and aviator who went missing after World War II. There is a real luxury in the world, that is, the precious understanding and connection between people. I think the meaning of the novel, whether it is a short story or a long story or a novella, lies in this. Dong Xia Qingqing said.
Wang Suxin found that because some people like to play social networking sites, they first wrote short stories on it in the form of hair states, one or two hundred words, and many details in them are very good and worth writing more fully. However, some authors say that once they have written more fully, they seem to be boring.
The author himself has gone from a writer with a thirst for narrative to an author who breaks the illusion of his own narrative. Although there is something unique about writing, when you want to continue to write, you find that you can only move more and more towards the traditions and classics that you once longed to deviate from, or you need to be tested by a wider range of experience. It's a dry and difficult road. "I myself will see from this kind of novel writing ecology that I once wrote—that is, the creative vehicle that impressed us, which was quickly abandoned by us after entering the real writing, and the writing we sneaked into, after we went deeper and deeper, its path seemed to be getting wider and wider, and it seemed to be narrower and narrower." ”
Judging from the reading experience in recent years, Zhang Lingling believes that there are some changes in short stories, such as the acceleration of narrative rhythm, more complex technology, the reduction of writing single events, the increase of compound narratives and writing characters, the change of sentences from long to short, and the transfer from the west, that is, the fusion of classical or dialects. "This has something to do with changes in the market environment. Inevitably, authors are also subject to reverse influences. At the same time, it is also closely related to the state of the writer. So instead of talking about the ecology of fiction, it is better to talk about the ecology of novelists. In recent years, the number of excellent short stories has increased, and the long stories are relatively weak, which is also related to the fragmentary time of most authors. ”
The first series of the NovelWorld Library was published
In this literary event, the first series of six books of the "Novel Industry Library" was also officially released. Huang Yuning, Zhang Yuan, Sun Mengjin, Wang Kanyu, btr, Xu Jia, Wang Ruoxu, Wang Mozhi, Yu Bingxia, He Yiman, Ge Shuyi, Lu Yinyin, Chen Qifan, Xu Chang, Lao Wang, Cai Qingzhong, Zhang Jun, Guo Yue and other "Novel Circles" authors also came to the event site to witness this moment.
Since its revision in 2017, Fiction World magazine has become a thriving force in literary magazines. In the past five years, the magazine has published more than 200 short stories by young writers, constantly winning new readers. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of "Novel Circle" magazine and the 5th anniversary of the revision of "Novel Circle" magazine, "Novel Circle" published a series of books in the form of a library - "Novel Circle Library" by year.
"Novel Industry Library"
It is reported that the first series of "Novel Circle Library" includes 6 themed books, including "You are still just a young man", "Love must be put into action", "I was a stranger to everyone that year", "He experienced the best things that are often not understood", "There was a wait on the flat ground", "As long as you remember the regrets in your life", the authors covered Lu Min, Yi Zhou, Shi Yifeng, Zhang Yiwei, Li Jingrui, Wen Zhen, Su Fang, Tian Yuan, Yan Qiao and other more than 40 writers, from lu xun literature award winners to young backbone writing power. As well as excellent cross-border writers, with an ecologically rich author group. Following the publication of the first series, "Novel Industry" will successively launch a number of sets of "Novel Industry Library".
Wang Wei, secretary of the party group of the Shanghai Writers Association, said that the Shanghai Writers Association has been vigorously promoting the development of various literary disciplines and is committed to building Shanghai into an international style literary city. At the same time, we should attach importance to the cultivation of young literary talents and encourage young writers to produce more works and good works. The "Short Story Biennial Award" issued by the Sinan Literary Anthology and the Novel Circle, which is supervised by the Shanghai Writers Association, advocates the internationalization, urbanization and rejuvenation of the works, which fully demonstrates the direction of this effort.
Kan Ninghui, deputy secretary of the party committee and president of Shanghai Century Publishing Group, also said that the design, selection and awarding of the "Short Story Biennial Award" is a review and verification of the vision of young writers and critics in Shanghai, "Shanghai Century Publishing Group is very honored to carry out in-depth cooperation with the Shanghai Writers Association again, and we all believe that this is a unique and unique display of Shanghai's urban soft power." ”
Group photo of the event
【Attached】The winning works and award speeches of the first "Short Story Biennial Award"
(in alphabetical order by author's initials)
Emma", "White-eared Night Heron"
"White-eared Night Heron" has a rare and worldly atmosphere. Deserted fishing villages, whistling sea breezes, simple taverns, cabbage sea oyster meat dumplings... It is as if when you are alone at night, you can see the windows of thousands of people's homes, and the joys and sorrows and sorrows inside are absorbed into a tranquility by the light that penetrates the darkness. In Emma's pen, people reconcile with the years, make peace with morality, all the passions and joys, the hardships and embarrassments, and the subtle beatings of the deep hearts of the people, all have an inner warmth in the gentle time.
Dong Xia Qingqing, "Under the Kocharit Mountain"
"Under the Kocharit Mountain" builds a unique texture of life and literary virtue in a language of simplicity, moderation, and personal characteristics, and the writer exercises the power of the grand parade of the outside world, while maintaining the sensitivity and agility of the inner world explorer, and wherever he goes, people steeply rise to an understanding and sublime, but they can also restrain them to reasonable sky boundaries. The novel embodies the author's trustworthy sense of proportion in narrative and the gesture of opening up to the complex world.
Zhao Song "Park"
Zhao Song's novels present a unique and intense way of experiencing the world. With a certain narrative structure of "hover-immersion-communication-hovering", he creates moving moments in the novel that come directly from everyday life but are an exceptional state of everyday life. "Park" brings not only the ruins of life, but also the ruins of novels, and it is in this ruin that he returns the novel and the potential of life to the people in the novel, and also to us.
Wang Suxin,"Next to the Desert Island"
Growth means harvesting, but what is important but easily overlooked is that harvesting is more restrictive. This is especially a test of self-judgment, awareness of freedom, and motivation to work hard. Aware of the limitations, but also continue to move towards possibility and richness, this shows life and human nature. "Next to the Desert Island" focuses on such thoughts and actions, as well as the changes, wanderings, limited delicacies and invisible disciplines in between. It's like the sound of breathing in a mirror, reflecting the complexity of the world. With his characteristic sensitivity and speculative consciousness, Wang Suxin constantly approaches reality and summons those who have not given up thinking in the harsh or ordinary life, and the leap in the sky at a certain moment.
Zhang Lingling, "May Will End"
"May Is Near" portrays a period of unsatisfactory male-female relationship, a bleak love affair, and all of this makes it possible to run a fiction. Zhang Lingling's novels, cautiously, restrained and with interest, demonstrate the validity of "realism" in the present. In her writing, the fragments of life and the imaginary shaping power arise and devour each other, completing the interrogation of the novel writing itself in a similar cross-examination link.
Editor-in-Charge: Liang Jia
Proofreader: Shi Gong