VietNamNet Bridge – The Bach Viet Book Company on Saturday for the first time presented the Bach Viet Award worth VND30 million ($1,750) for a poetry collection entitled “Ma Thuat Ngon” by Tran Tuan.

The cover of “Ma Thuat Ngon” poem collection.

From April-November 2008 the organising board received 315 submissions by poets from home and abroad. The eldest was born in 1929 and the youngest in 1990.

The VND30 million Bach Viet Award, one of the first private awards for poetry in Vietnam, went to Tran Tuan, 41, for his poetry collection named “Ma Thuat Ngon”.

The four other works that entered the final round with “Ma Thuat Ngon” include Do Doan Phuong’s “Tides of Orgasm”, Le Vinh Tai’s “Night and Dances”, Do Tri Vuong’s “Today’s Food”, and Nguyen The Hoang Linh’s “The World’s Each Nation, Each City”.

At the awards ceremony on Saturday, Bach Viet Book Company launched the Bach Viet Award for novels in 2009. The jury members will include famous writers like poet Nguyen Quang Thieu, writer Le Minh Khue, literature critic Nguyen Thi Minh Thai, writer Nguyen Viet Ha and writer Tran Nha Thuy.

The company announced it will launch other Bach Viet awards, namely Bach Viet Award for Translated Books in 2010 and the Bach Viet Award for Literature Argument and Criticism in 2011.

Mai Sen