Taiwan Literature Awards Honor Authors

Established and emerging authors share their writing journeys

Taiwan Literature Award winners pose for a photo with Minister of Culture Lee Yung-te (front center), National Museum of Taiwan Literature Director Nikky Lin (front center left), and judges.

The National Museum of Taiwan Literature (NMTL) held its Taiwan Literature Awards for Books ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 12. Lai Hsiang-yin (賴香吟) , author of“The White Portrait” received the Annual Golden Grand Laurel Award.

Lai, who flew from Germany to attend the ceremony, thanked the Taiwan Literature Awards, judges, and readers and said since winning her first Golden Book Award ten years ago, she has striven to write what she wants. With “The White Portrait,” Lai said she felt she had conquered a mountain.

Other Golden Book Winners include:

Ling Yu (零雨) for “Daughters”
Ho Chih-ho (何致和) for “Underground Station”
He Wen-jin (何玟珒) for “That Day, We Searched Our Ways Behind a Chicken Butt”
Chang Chuan-fen (張娟芬) for “Hooligan Wang Xin-fu”
Chung Yung-feng (鍾永豐) for “How the Night Chrysanthemums Began to March”
Kevin Chen (陳思宏) for “The Good People Upstairs”
Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) for “Torrent And Reflections”

Chung, who also received a New Bud Award that recognizes up-and-coming authors publishing for the first time, said his biggest thanks went to singer, Lin Sheng-xiang (林生祥). If not for his long-term partnership with Lin co-writing songs and lyrics, he said he would not be able to fully explore the depth of his social experiences in literature.

Attorney Tang Fu-jui (唐福睿) received a New Bud Award for “The Attorney From Bachimen” said he was greatly motivated by the characters in his book, who changed his life after he created their world. Conservationist Kuo Yen-jen (郭彥仁) was recognized for “Into the Bunun Mountains” and said it was nature that led him to begin his career in writing, through which he found new surprises that forests held.

The Ministry of Culture (MOC) congratulated the winners and as well as literature lovers for the opportunity to gather and celebrate the year’s best works. The diverse types of works seen in this year’s 203 submissions, according to the MOC, demonstrates Taiwanese authors’ abundant creative energy.

Minister Lee Yung-te (李永得), who handed out the Annual Golden Grand Laurel Award, said it is the MOC’s duty to not only boost the awarded books’ visibility within the market but also enhance their value through inter-industrial collaborations. Another important goal would be to promote them internationally.

“Starting next year, we have added much budget to strategically and systematically translate Taiwan’s excellent literary works into languages of various countries,” he said. “This is the Ministry of Culture’s promise to everyone.”

After the awards ceremony, the NMTL will be holding 10 Golden Book Seminars for authors to meet their readers in Taipei, Tainan, and online. Additionally, the NMTL also partnered with Bleu & Book to produce a live-streamed podcast for readers to listen to award-winning authors share their writing experiences.

Details of both the Golden Book Seminars and Bleu & Book podcasts can be found on the Taiwan Literature Awards website or the Taiwan Literature Awards Online 2022 Facebook page.

Taiwan Literature Awards Online 2022 Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/TaiwanLiteratureAwards/
Taiwan Literature Awards website
https://award.nmtl.gov.tw/


Minister of Culture Lee Yung-te presents Lai Hsiang-yin with the Annual Golden Grand Laurel Award.


Taiwan Literature Award ceremony attendees pose for a group photo.