Art And Culture
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President Awards Book of the Year Winners

Among the 65,000 titles that received publishing permit this year that ends in March, around 14,000 are translations and 50,000 are authored
President Hassan Rouhani (2nd R), Culture Minister Reza Salehi Amiri (2nd L) and Mohammad Nahavandian,  chief of presidential staff, (L) with one of the winners at Vahdat Hall on February 7
President Hassan Rouhani (2nd R), Culture Minister Reza Salehi Amiri (2nd L) and Mohammad Nahavandian,  chief of presidential staff, (L) with one of the winners at Vahdat Hall on February 7

Winners of the 34th Iran National Award for Book of the Year and 24th Iran World Award for Book of the Year received their prizes from President Hassan Rouhani, at a ceremony at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on Tuesday.

Pointing to the importance of cultural development Rouhani said, “A government without culture does not have worth. Culture (cultural activities) too must respect the confines of the law so that we can achieve the lofty goals of the revolution.”

He underlined that books should not create discord among ethnic groups and religions or seek to encourage extremism and violence, Honaronline reported.

Stating that national security “is the red line in book publishing,” he said books should help promote unity and harmony in the community.

On the issue of lackadaisical interest in books among the people, the president said scholars and researchers should ponder on the causes and discuss the reasons with the minister of culture and Islamic guidance (Reza Salehi Amiri).

He emphasized the need to support publishers. Just as the names of popular authors encourage people to buy their works, similarly there should be powerful publishers that can serve “as a brand and attract readers.”

Speaking at the same ceremony, Salehi Amiri recalled one of Rouhani’s remarks before he was elected president in 2013 “Trust writers and desist from unnecessary strictness,” he had said.

“Among the total 65,000 titles that received publishing permit this year (ends in March), around 14,000 are translations and 50,000 works are authored,” the culture minister said. There were very few books that required censorship, “less than three-thousandth of the works.”

He referred to the new policy directive of the president to the ministry, which would enable all writers to publish their works with freedom of expression and “even those three-thousandths can be published after revision by authors.”

  Concern Over Electronic Theft 

Secretary of the Award Mohammad Ali Mahdavirad cited electronic theft as the major problem of publishers and authors. A book is written by a writer after months of effort and published with lots of hardship but unfortunately it becomes available on cyber space in just a matter of days. He called for stringent rules to address the problem.

For this year’s edition of the award, 45,000 books were considered in the national section and 182 titles reached the final round and were evaluated by four jury members. In the world section, out of the 2,500 books, 182 titles were judged by the jury in the final round.

In the national section, 11 figures were announced as the winners of five categories of science, applied sciences, language, art and religion, and 40 others were commended. In the world section, 8 authors and translators from Malaysia, Turkey, Germany, Spain, Finland, Romania, England and Iran were awarded.

Books published for the first time in the previous fiscal year that ended in March 2016, were eligible for the award.

 

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