Winners in various categories were honored on Monday during a special ceremony at the Iran Pen Association, which organizes the Golden Pen Awards every year.

Published by Sureh-Mehr, “Bor Shekan” takes its title from an ancient tradition that existed in Iran’s Chahar-Mahal and Bakhtiari region during feudalism. Based on Bor Shekan, farmers agreed to reap the wheat and barley harvest on the same day in order to protect each other’s rights.

The Iranian Land Reform in the 1960s led to the fall of khans and Bor Shekan sinks into oblivion in the wake of industrial farming that comes following the reform.

The khans begin to restore the tradition, distorting it by some superstitions in order to return to power.  

“Without Father’s Name” has been published by Jamkaran. The story is about a corrupt general who is an English agent in the Shah’s regime. He is sent on a mission to suppress separatist Kurds in the northwest of Iran. Meanwhile, he falls in love with a Kurdish girl.

The award for children’s story was also shared by “Yolbars and the Underground City” by Abdorrahman Onaq and “Secret of the Small Grain” by Razieh Khademolhosseini.

“Yolbars and the Underground City” is an adaptation of “The Book of Dede Gorgud” is a heroic epic poem of the Oghuz, a Turkic tribal group whose members were the ancestors of the Azerbaijanis, Turks, Turkmens and the Gagauz.

“Secret of the Small Grain” tells the story of Gandomak, a small wheat grain that leaves its friends behind to realize a great dream. Gandomak meets a little ant that accompanies the wheat on the odyssey.   

“Bracelets of Nimrod’s Daughter” by Saeideh Hashemi and “Freedom’s Cell” by Hadi Khorshahian shared the award in the Adult Poetry section, while “I’m the Fish of Your River” by Mahmud Purvahab won the Golden Pen Award in the Children’s Poetry category.

No winner was announced for the Golden Pen in the Review and Research category. However, Seyyed Mehdi Tabatabai’s “A Sieve in the Hand”, which delves into plagiarism in contemporary poetry, received an honorable mention in this section.

Source:Tehran Times