Three novels themed on islands with colonial pasts on Thursday won the top prize in the fiction category at the Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE).
The exhibition, which has fiction, nonfiction, and children’s and young adults’ literature categories, recognizes Chinese-language works that were published for the first time in Taiwan between Oct. 1 the prior year and Sept. 30.
The Taipei Book Fair Foundation unveiled the winners of the TIBE Prizes and the Golden Butterfly Awards for book design at a news conference at the Taipei Info Hub.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Book Fair Foundation
The freedom to create in Taiwan gives rise to diverse works, foundation chairman Chao Cheng-ming (趙政岷) said.
With the work and support of the Ministry of Culture, the publishing industry and writers, the nation’s creative energy would continue to produce great works, Chao said.
The prizes for fiction went to Eyelids of Morning (鱷眼晨曦) by Taiwanese-Malaysian novelist Zhang Guixing (張貴興), Pan Dulce Island (甜麵包島) by Taiwanese author Lu Ping (鹿苹) and Bloodline Murderer (姓司武的都得死) by Hong Kong novelist Albert Tam (譚劍).
Taiwanese writer Chung Wen-yin (鍾文音), the head judge of the fiction category, said that the three works all tell stories of colonized islands.
Winners in the non-fiction category included Lee Yee’s (李怡) autobiography Memoirs of a Failure
(失敗者回憶錄); Chen Lieh’s (陳列) The Book of Wreckage (殘骸書) about his experience during the White Terror era; and National Taiwan University economics professor emeritus Wu Tsong-min’s (吳聰敏) Taiwan’s Economy Over 400 Years (台灣經濟四百年).
The fiction and non-fiction categories had many strong contenders from Hong Kong this year, the foundation said.
The works of Taiwanese illustrators Jimmy Liao (幾米) and Bernie Lin (林柏廷) won in the children’s and young adults’ literature category, along with one jointly created by Lin Da-li (林大利), Kiya Chang (張季雅) and Chen Wan-yun (陳宛昀).
Yeh Chung-yi (葉忠宜), Chihoi (智海), and Teng Yu (鄧彧) and He Ping-ping (何萍萍) took home the gold, silver and bronze medals respectively in the Golden Butterfly Awards.
The ceremony is to be held on Feb. 20 at the opening of the exhibition, while the works are to be displayed at the Pavilion of Book Prize Winners during the exhibition from Feb. 20 to 25.
The foundation is also holding an exhibition of “the most beautiful books in Taiwan” until Feb. 4 at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park’s Not Just Library (不只是圖書館) in Taipei, displaying winning works of the Golden Butterfly Awards from the past five years.
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