This is the 12th edition of the event, which is annually held by the Foundation for the Preservation and Publication of Sacred Defense Works and Values (FPPSDWV) to honor writers of books on the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, which is known as the Sacred Defense in Iran.
Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad-Hossein Saffar Harandi, FPPSDWV Director Mir Feisal Baqerzadeh, a number Iranian literati, and war veterans attended the ceremony.
“To discover the mysteries of the rousing spirit of Sacred Defense, it is necessary to delve very deeply into the event,” Saffar Harandi said during the award presentation ceremony.
“As time passes, it is expected that the books on Sacred Defense to become more mature in nature,” he added.
A winner leaves the stage after receiving a prize from officials in the Sacred Defense Book of the Year awards ceremony at Tehran’s Art Bureau on November 18, 2008. (Mehr/Mohsen Sajjadi)
Following is a list of main prize winners in various categories:
Poetry Section:
No work merited the first prize but the jury awarded “The Bloody Cough in the Wind” by Morteza Heidari and “A Train From the September Republic” by Esmaeil Mohammadpur both the second prize in this section. “Barefoot to the Moon” by Reza Kazemi won the third prize.
Children’s Poetry Section:
No works deserved the first and third prizes and the three-volume collection of “The Fragrance of Peach”, “Gunpowder”, and “A Quarter Past Seven” by Mohammad-Kazem Mazinani won the second prize.
Autographed Memory Section:
“I Wrote to Remain” by Mohsen Kazemi won the first prize and “The Lonely Roads of the War” by Mohsen Motalq and “The Epic of Majid” by Majid Arabzadeh were winners of the second and third prizes respectively.
Verbal Memory Section:
“Camp One” compiled by Asghar Kazemi won the first prize. “Wavering in Chain” compiled by Morteza Soltani and “The Last Shot” shared third prize and no work was awarded the second prize.
Fiction Section:
No entry was given the first prize in this section. “We Have Come From Do-Kuheh, We Are Strangers” by Majid Purvali won the second prize and “That’s Here” Mehdi Dehqani received the third prize.
Fictionalized Biography Section:
No work was able to win the first and second prizes in this section, although Nosratollah Mahmudzadeh’s “At the Foot of the Mountain’s Minaret” won the third prize.
War and Biography Section:
“The Noble Sheikh” compiled by Javad Kamvar won the first prize but no second or third prize was awarded.
Literary Research Section:
No work was deemed worthy of the first, Second or third prizes in this section.
Military Research Section:
Gol-Ali Babaii won third prize for “Mutual Blow” but no first or second prize was given.
Art Section:
* No work was able to win first, second or third prize in the Drama Section as well as in the Illustration and Photo Section.
* Masud Nejabati for “The Astray Calf” and Mohammadreza Sohrabinejad for “My Homeland Ebrahim” shared the second prize for the Best Cover Designer, but no work deserved the first or third prize.
MMS/YAW
END
MNA