The number and quality of books participating in the contest increased.
Entering its 7th season, the National Book Awards has become a prominent cultural event, attracting public attention, and the quality of works submitted for the awards has been increasingly improved, keeping up with modern trends.
According to the Jury, this year’s works are of good quality in both content and form, diverse in theme and style. Many authors have explored current issues of public interest, and many works are valuable.
Mr. Tong Van Thanh - Director of the Department of Press and Publishing, Central Propaganda Department, Vice President of Vietnam Publishing Association - commented: "The National Book Award Council 2024 has worked seriously and scientifically. The subcommittees have gone through a careful consideration process to select the most deserving works. Thanks to that, each book winning the A prize is representative of its field."
In the 2024 season, the organizing committee recorded 51/57 publishers with books participating in the Award (10 more publishers than the 6th National Book Award). The number of books participating in the 7th National Book Award was 372 titles and book series, including 455 books (60 more titles and book series, 20 books than the 6th National Book Award).
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The five categories of books awarded by the National Book Awards include: Books on politics and economics; books on natural sciences and technology; books on social sciences and humanities, culture; books on literature and arts; and children's books. This year, the organizing committee added the Readers' Favorite Book Award category, nominated and voted by readers themselves.
The political and economic books subcommittee nominated 12 works, of which nearly 70% were translated books from works by international authors. Mr. Nguyen Nguyen - Director of the Department of Publishing, Printing and Distribution - said that the political and economic books subcommittee has many translated books because the content of the books has many good models and methods, which are opportunities for readers to refer to and learn in the process of innovation and development.
With 14 nominated works, the natural science and technology book subcommittee recognized works with diverse topics, meeting the increasing needs of readers. The social science and humanities book subcommittee nominated 9 outstanding works, of which the book series "Gia Dinh - Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City: Long Mile of History (1698-2020)" by researcher Nguyen Dinh Tu was nominated for the A prize.
The subcommittee of cultural, literary and artistic books has 13 works, gathering many authors from many generations, the works have rich content. The books "The Teacher", "Uncle Hana" or "Why do we love?" are works close to readers, having a strong influence in the past year. Books with in-depth research on Vietnamese culture such as "Pleasure and Desire - Or the story of food and drink in the 19th century epic in Vietnam", "Nguyen Dinh Chieu Complete Works", "The Youth of Patriotic New Music" are evaluated elaborately, with cultural and historical value.
This year, the children's book subcommittee did not have an A prize. Mr. Nguyen Nguyen shared that although the number of Vietnamese readers buying books for children has increased every year, the children's book section did not have an A prize because the National Book Award has its own criteria system. In addition to the scientific, educational, and aesthetic qualities, the council also values the work's dissemination. Therefore, children's works that win professional awards may not win an A prize at the National Book Award due to differences in criteria and award review time.
In the 7th season, the Organizing Committee of the National Book Awards wants to reach out to readers, the book market and works with strong influence. The Readers' Favorite Book Award was born and the criteria of influence level were also considered when evaluating the works submitted for the award.
