No winner selected for Iran’s most lucrative literary awards this year

TEHRAN,Nov.26(MNA)– The 5th Jalal Al-e Ahmad Literary Awards selected no winner this year. The award, which is named after the prominent Iranian writer Jalal Al-e Ahmad (1923-1969), is Iran’s most lucrative literary award. Each winner in the four categories of fiction, biography, memoir, and literary review receives 110 Bahar Azadi gold coins worth over 121 million rials (over $43,000). This year, only four books received honorable mention during a ceremony at the Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR) Study Center in Tehran on Wednesday evening. “Rumi-Like on the Silent Secrets” by Ali Mohammadi Asiabadi and “Crimson Wisdom” by Taqi Purnamdarian received honorable mention in the literary review section. The honorable mention in the memoirs section went to “Nureddin, Son of Iran” by Masumeh Sepehri. The book contains the memories of war veteran Nureddin Afi from the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. “The Biography”, which tells the life story of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, received an honorable mention in the biography section. This book was compiled by Hedayatollah Behbudi. “Hafez Seven”, a novel on the journey of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei to Fars Province in 2009, received an honorable mention in the fiction section. Each honoree was presented only with 25 Bahar Azadi gold coins. Within a year, the price of Bahr Azadi gold coins has doubled. The secretary of the 5th Jalal Al-e Ahmad Literary Awards, Majid Hamidzadeh, said that the increase in the price of the gold coin had not influenced the jury’s decision.