TEHRAN – Nominees in different categories of the 14th edition of the Jalal Al-e Ahmad Literary Awards, Iran’s most lucrative literary prizes, were unveiled on Tuesday.

Five books, including “Without Father’s Name”, are competing in the novel category.

Written by Seyyed Meisam Musavian, “Without Father’s Name” has been published by Jamkaran. 

The story is about a corrupt general who is an English agent in the Shah’s regime. He is sent on a mission to suppress separatist Kurds in the northwest of Iran. Meanwhile, he falls in love with a Kurdish girl.

The novel shared the award in the Adult Story section at the 19th edition of the Golden Pen Awards in 2021.

Other nominees include “Killing Angel” by Alireza Hassanzadeh, “The Prophet Who Made No Miracle” by Mohammad-Ali Rokni, “A Mute Sonnet” by Mitra Moeini, and “Sad Moon, Red Moon” by Reza Julai.

Four books received nominations in the short story collections competition.

“Prepare for Assassination” by Ali Barati-Kajvan, “Two-Eyed Ha” by Mahbubeh Hajiannejad, “Unhappy Hour” Mohammad-Esmaeil Hajalian and “Mad Saint” by Ahmadreza Amiri-Samani. 

In the documentation category, seven books have been nominated.

“A Man Named Reza Who Was Then Called Reza Khan”, a biography of Reza Shah by Hedayatollah Behbudi, is a highlight of this section

The book recounts the life story of the first monarch of the Pahlavi dynasty from his birth in 1878 until 1921 when he was selected as the commander of the Iranian Army in the new government after the 1921 coup.

This book was honored in the History Narration category at the 2nd edition of the Seyyed Ali Andarzgu Literary Awards, which are given to books on the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Other nominees include “Abu Baran” by Zahra Sadat Sabeti, “Daddy Rajab” by Nasrin Rajabpur, “Don’t Touch Me” by Faezeh Ghaffar-Haddadi, “Fascinating Grief” by Meisam Amiri, “Khanom Jan’s Neighbor” by Zeinab Erfanian and  “The All-Rounder” by Mojtaba Qafelebashi, Hassan Rafiei and Masud Jalilvand. 

“Albert Camus in Iran” co-written by Mohammadreza Farsian and Fatemeh Qaderi, “Silent Resistance” by Mehdi Mirkiani and “Narratology and Narrative Review” by Elham Haddadi and Farhad Dorudian are the books competing in the literary review category.

Winners, which will be announced in two weeks, each will receive from one billion rials (Over $3,650 (based on Iran’s free-market exchange rate: $1 = 273,360 rials) to 1.5 billion rials (about $5,500).

Photo: A poster for the Jalal Al-e Ahmad Literary Awards.

MMS/YAW