The closing ceremony of the Sixth Parvin Etesami Literary Award will be held at Tehran’s Institute of Culture, Art and Architecture affiliated to the Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR) on June 15, said Managing Director of Iranian Poetry and Fiction Foundation Mehdi Qezeli.
The ceremony should have been held last year but was postponed due to the International Fajr Poetry Festival (May 11-21, 2014) and Jalal Al-e-Ahmad Literary Award (November 24, 2014), Qezeli said, reports Mehr News Agency.
The event will announce the winners in fiction, poem, literary criticism, dramatic literature and children’s literature categories. About 29 research works, 122 translated books, 95 works of fiction and 142 poetry books have been selected from thousands of literary and research works presented. Also, 23 and 200 books were selected out of 47 and 2,100 works of drama and children’s literature respectively.
The event aims to promote women’s literary creativity, introduce female literary figures and researchers and honor women in the field of Persian language and literature. The best books and research works will be awarded with 12 and 4 gold coins respectively.
Etesami (1907-1941) is the most celebrated Iranian poetess of the 20th century. Her poetry follows classical Persian tradition in form and substance. Her works mostly follow didactic and philosophical styles. The major themes of her poetry are fatalism or predestination; introduction of liberal measures for enlightening the masses; poverty of the masses vis-à-vis the exploitative schemes of the upper class; and the plight of orphans, the aged, and the destitute.
