Three novels have been shortlisted for the awards this year.
The nominees are “Mid-Day Incantations” by Mansur Alimoradi, “Hard Labor” by Mohammad Hanif and “The Imaginative” by Ahmad Hassanzadeh.
“Mid-Day Incantations” published by Nimaj tells two interrelated stories about the central character of the book in a magical journey to Iran’s Lut Desert and a romantic life with a stage artist in Tehran.
Published by Neyestan, “Hard Labor” is about a man who takes the readers through the maze of the novel by recounting stories about his life, other people and numerous situations.
“The Imaginative” is Elyas, an unusual little boy who lives with his bizarre family in a strange town. The physical and non-physical defects in Elyas and other central characters of the story symbolize the large number of detrimental impacts from which the small town suffers.
The finalists have been selected by a jury composed of Javad Afhami, Saeid Tashakkori and Ali Changizi.
The organizers have earlier announced the nominees in the categories of documentation and review.
“From Rey to Damascus”, “Ten-Eighty”, “Absolute Value of a Conspiracy”, “My Poor Beloved Country” and “Gem of Patience” are among the nominations in the documentation category.
The nominees for the review section are “Mythology of Love in Iranian Culture”, “Epic of Musayyebnameh”, “History of the Body in Literature”, “Narratology of Drama” and “Philosophy of the Story of Story”.
This year, the organizers initiated a special category named “Forty Years of the Sacred Defense Fiction” to honor the authors of the foremost stories created about the war over the past four decades.
One of the writers is Habib Ahmadzadeh, the author of the acclaimed novel “Chess with the Doomsday Machine” and a book of short stories, “A City Under Siege”.
Hamid Hesam, the Islamic Revolution Artist of the Year in 2018, is another author picked by the organizers. He is the author of “When the Moonlight Was Missing”, “Just Be a Servant of Hussein” and “Immigrant from the Land of the Sun”.
Also included are Ahmad Dehqan, one of Iran’s foremost war writers and the author of “A Vital Killing” and “Bearing 270 Degrees”, Mohammadreza Bayrami, the author of the acclaimed novella “Barren”, and Rahim Makhdumi, who wrote “The Entry-Forbidden Commanders”, which is a compilation of stories from 30 Iranian commanders.
Davud Amirian, Golali Babai, Akbar Sahrai, Davud Ghaffarzadegan, Qassemali Ferasat, Majid Qeisari and Ali Moazzeni are other top writers in this section.
Source: Tehran Times