HÀ NỘI — Outstanding books and collections of Việt Nam were honoured at a ceremony held last night at Việt Nam's national radio station Voice of Vietnam.

The National Book Awards 2019 were hosted by the Ministry of Information and Communications and organised by the Vietnam Publishers’ Association and the National Book Prize Council.

The annual state awards are presented to books and collections for valued content in terms of ideology, knowledge and aestheticism.

The awards aim to honour writers, translators, scientists and publishers nationwide as well as discover, preserve and promote works that are valuable to readers.

They are also expected to stimulate the publishing field to develop in the right direction and in line with integration.

The awards are presented in five fields: politics and economics; science and technology; social science and humanity; culture, literature and arts; children.

According to Hoàng Phong Hà, the vice chairman of the prize council, 42 publishing houses with 355 books and 259 titles participated in the awards this year.

“The council have worked seriously and objectively to select the most outstanding books to grant the awards,” he said.

Awards were given to 27 books and collections, among which are two won A awards, 13 received B awards and 12 claimed C awards.

Specifically, A awards were granted to collections entitled Fauna of Vietnam (from volume No 26 to 31) and Flora of Vietnam (from Volume 12 to 21) by a group of authors. Another went to The Southern Land of Vietnam - The Process of Formation and Development by professor of history Phan Huy Lê.

The awarded works were praised for their creativity, thorough humanity, scientific, social and practical values.

According to the vice chairman of the Vietnam Publishers’ Association, the awards this year had improved from the previous seasons.

Firstly, the organisation and regulations were improved based on previous experience.

Secondly, the awards were classified into A, B and C awards. The number of awards decreased compared with the previous year, but their quality increased as well as the prize money. An A award is worth VNĐ100 million (US$4,300), B is VNĐ50 million ($2,150) and C VNĐ30 million ($1,300).

The awards attracted the involvement of society, receiving much support from enterprises and sponsors and were broadcast widely via various media outlets, he added.

Associate Professor Trần Đức Cường, a member of the National Book Awards Council, said books with more prominent content including research, law and literary theory all performed strongly. Meanwhile, literary works of this year did not meet expectations. — VNS