What's New
In 2024, the 7th National Book Awards had 51 publishers with works submitted, with a total of 372 titles and book series, including 455 books. In the structure of books nominated for the award, translated books accounted for a fairly large proportion, especially in the field of political and economic books, with translated books accounting for nearly 70%.
Mr. Nguyen Nguyen - Director of the Department of Publishing, Printing and Distribution - said that the nominated books for the award include not only books by Vietnamese authors but also many translated titles, because that is the way for readers to absorb and update the world's knowledge. 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.
“Translated books account for a certain proportion in each genre, accounting for about 37% of the total number of works nominated for awards. For the publishing industry, the task is not only to honor and spread culture and national identity but also to receive the quintessence of human culture and integrate into the world. The National Book Award keeps up with the world publishing trend but also honors and recognizes the contributions of domestic authors,” Mr. Nguyen Nguyen assessed.
This year's National Book Awards organizers have increased the number of awards from 1 to 2 for each book category to have more opportunities to honor books by Vietnamese authors.
This year, the new feature of the National Book Awards is that the organizing committee has added the Readers' Favorite Book Award category, nominated and voted by readers. Before the award ceremony, authors, translators, and publishing units will participate in a gratitude ceremony, while promoting and disseminating books after winning the Award.
The works are carefully evaluated.
Regarding the judging process, the National Book Award Organizing Committee said that 81 experts, scientists, and managers participated in the judging process, most of whom are leading writers and scientists with prestige and experience in judging awards.
The award is independent and carefully evaluated. The award is given to books that meet the needs of domestic readers, based on the political, ideological, scientific and practical value of the book.
Mr. Tong Van Thanh - Head of the Press and Publishing Department, Central Propaganda Department - affirmed: "All entries were carefully selected. The books that made it to the final round had no serious errors in politics, ideology, accuracy... No books were withdrawn after the evaluation and appraisal process."
Through the preliminary and final rounds, the organizing committee unanimously proposed to submit to the Minister of Information and Communications for consideration of awarding prizes to 58 sets of books, books that won 59 prizes (1 book won 2 award categories), including: 3 A prizes, 10 B prizes, 21 C prizes, 21 Encouragement prizes and 4 Readers' Favorite Book prizes.
In the 7th season, the Organizing Committee of the National Book Awards wants to reach out to readers, to the book market, and to books with strong influence. Therefore, the Readers' Favorite Book Award was born and the criteria of influence level were also considered when evaluating the works submitted for the award.
Regarding the fact that this year there was no A Prize for children's books despite the number of Vietnamese readers buying books for children increasing every year, Mr. Nguyen Nguyen said that the National Book Awards have their own criteria system, in addition to scientific, educational, and aesthetic factors, the council also values the dissemination of the work. Therefore, children's works that win professional awards may not win A Prize at the National Book Awards due to differences in criteria and award review time.
The 7th National Book Awards Ceremony, 2024 will take place on November 29 at the Hanoi Opera House.
