Home   Arts   Literature   Traditional Thinking   Presentations   History   News   Courses

The second annual (2015) Poetry Prize given by the journal “People’s Literature” was presented on January 9, 2016 at Jianghan University in Wuhan. 2014 was the first year to give the prize, which was decided by an appraisal panel of five members, who gave anonymous votes to poems or poet published in the previous year in the journal. The prize is RMB ￥20,000 to the poet or the poem being voted on. The prize is in three categories: the annual poet, the annual poem and three avant-garde poets under the age of 35.

For 2015, Yè Zhōu (叶舟) was elected the “Annual Poet”, the reason given was: “Yè Zhōu’s poem sequence ‘White Snow Grassland’ (组诗《白雪草原》) presents new possibilities and spiritual visions for ‘writing about the west regions of China’. The poet has, rarely and with much ease, accomplished spiritual alignment and reflection of thoughts in detail and scenes in the great space with his building capacity. The flashing of poetic thoughts do contain some weight, the full poetic emotion does render some alarming signals. The diction and poetic thoughts are so naturally produced that the sequence elevates with power the profile of ‘writing about the west regions.’”

The group poem “Nothing to Versify” (《无所诗》) written by Shí Tōu (石头or Stone) was elected the “Annual Poem”. The reason was given as: “the group poem splashes coldness onto the body of modern experience. What is contained between lines seems petulant, yet the reader can find the talent and the linguistic audacity and insight of the poet. His reflection on modern experience and his relying on the huge and robust power of short lines constitute the image of his unyielding and austere poetry of a wise man.”

Guō Jiànqiáng’s (郭建强) poems were also elected the “Annual Poem”, the reason was stated as: “Short and delicate, his Chinese language seems modest, contained and unhurried in his poems; his occasional excitement and heroic emotions render his poetry into well-arranged lines without losing their seriousness; such an arrangement echoes with his life in Qinghai and enriches western songs and poems, which are supposed to be extraordinary, bold and forthright.”

One of the prize for avant-garde poets was given to Xià Wǔ (夏午) on the following reasons: Xià Wǔ’s language is extremely transparent, and therefore, it is clearly and purely lyric. We can see from her groups poem “It Is All Stars Only” (《唯有满目星辰》) the finest changes of ray refractions. With her low and graceful melody, her tactful and meaningful notes connect with ancient Chinese traditions subtly, thus her poetry carries much density and thickness in her clear transparency.

The second winner of the prize for the avant-garde poets was Huáng Zhìyáng (黄智扬)， whose group poem “Night Stalker” presented a linguistic adventure. The poet moved forward the lines by the means of clashing of words. Such normal sense as “theme”, “intention” and “significance” are hidden in the group poem, what we see are only the rhythm of words, edges and spatial imaginary, which seem like two hands touching and knocking on the keyboard of our lives and give us some real pleasure.

The third winner of the prize for the avant-garde poets was Xú Xiǎo (徐晓)， whose group poem “The Night of Heavy Snow” (《大雪之夜》) is obviously melodious. The group poem transmutes experience in life into symbolic connotations of language time and space. It seems that the poet is standing at a wind gap in the boundless and infinite time, and at the same time, depicts things natural and yet symbols in the process of modern civilization. Despite confusion and hardship in life, within the fatigue and boredom in spirit of the modern men, there are some kind of tranquility and purity that you can find in prayers.