The National Museum of Taiwan Literature announced winners for this year’s Taiwan Literature Award Nov. 25, granting a total of NT$1.8 million (US$59,220) in prizes to four writers.
Works by novelist Tong Wei-ger, essayist Chou Fen-ling, playwright Chen Chien-cheng and newcomer in reportage literature Lisin Codat came out on top in the award’s four genres.
The NMTL-sponsored award, now in its fifth year, is one of the most prestigious literary honors in Taiwan. Jury panels chose from works that were published in the past year and submitted to the competition.
Tong’s 100,000-word novel, tentatively titled “Northwester” in English, won unanimous approval from the jury and was lauded as paving a new possibility for fiction writing. It is the author’s third novel.
Chou’s prose, with its succinct style of Chinese, stood out among the six contestants in the category, according to the jury.
Chen, known for his poetry in Holo Taiwanese, netted the award for playwriting with “Cleaning” (tentative translation), a work that deals with the experiences of three nurses and a patient in a quarantined hospital during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Taiwan in 2003.
Elementary school teacher Lisin Codat took away the prize for aboriginal reportage. A Sakizaya, Lisin Codat interviewed his father-in-law and aunt and documented the efforts of these two leading figures in seeking official government recognition for their indigenous group, formerly lumped under the Amis.
According to the museum, the Taiwan Literature Award is designed to encourage the writing and publication of literary works, and promote Taiwan literature in the international arena. (THN)