The 18th Jalal al-Ahmed Literary Award, the highest honor in modern Persian literature, was presented at the National Library of Iran’s Grand Hall in Tehran on January 7. The event, organized by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is considered one of the most important events in the country’s literary world.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyyed Abbas Salehi emphasized that Iran is a land of stories and tales, and that this heritage is gaining new life through the pens of modern writers.
According to the results of the competition, Mohammadreza Kateb’s novel “Lems” (The Battle) was chosen as the best work in the “Novel and Long Prose” category. In addition, writer Zehra Goodarzi’s novel “The General” also received high praise among authors who published their books for the first time. In the “Short Stories” category, two winners were announced, with Abbas Azimi’s “Sometimes Look at the Tombs” and Khosrow Abbasi Khodlan’s “I Am Ibn Battuta.” In the field of non-fiction, Morteza Serhengi’s “Qasim” won.
Majid Geysari, secretary of the 18th edition of the competition, announced that the number of submitted works this year has increased by 20 percent compared to last year, and by 35 percent in the non-fiction category. The event also highlighted the visible activity of female writers and their excellent works. However, the jury of the competition did not announce any author as the winner in the literary criticism category due to the lack of sufficiently good works. The Jalal al-Ahmed Prize not only provides financial incentives to writers, but also paves the way for the reprinting and international presentation of selected works.
