Three books were awarded the A Prize, including Đoan binh Tay Tiến (The Brigade of Tay Tien), memoirs written in 1952 by the poet Quang Dung. For reasons still unknown, this 124-page book had to wait 67 years before being published by Kim Dong editions. It recounts the ups and downs of Tay Tien's brigade, which was formed following President Ho Chi Minh's call for national resistance in 1946. The main mission of this brigade was to sensitize the population to anti-resistance. French. It was Bui Phuong Thao, Quang Dung's daughter, who entrusted the poet's manuscripts to Kim Dong editions.
“This award is a great joy for me and for all of my father's readers who can now have access to historical testimonies,” she tells us.
The other two A-Prize books focus on medicine and the other on history. The organizing committee also awarded 10 B prizes and 14 C prizes.
According to associate professor Tran Duc Cuong, president of the Association of Historians of Vietnam and member of the jury, the quality of the works has increased compared to previous years and they are more beautiful.
“This year's social and human sciences books include more monographs. The sources of information consulted by the authors are much more diverse and their research methods more modern, ”he notes.
Despite the Covid-19 epidemic and the months of social distancing that followed, the 2020 National Book Prize attracted the participation of 48 publishing houses, 6 more compared to the previous edition, points out Nguyen Quang Thieu, vice-president of the Vietnamese Writers Association.
“For readers, this award is a guarantee of quality. It is therefore up to the jury and the selectors to exercise the greatest caution, ”he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam wishes to make this award a lever to encourage reading among the population.
"We must encourage the Vietnamese to read more to enrich their knowledge and their soul," he says. "It is therefore necessary to increase the honoring activities of books, authors, publishers and readers. This responsibility falls not only on the publishing industry, but on the entire political system and society. "
The organizing committee of the National Book Prize plans to publish a digital version of the winning works and encourages publishers to digitize their publications, in order to make them known as widely as possible.
Ai Kieu
