Cricket Children's Award: Writer Ly Lan becomes the first female 'Knight'

On the afternoon of May 29, the 5th De Men Children's Awards Ceremony - 2024 took place at the National News Center, 5 Ly Thuong Kiet, Hanoi .

Writer Ly Lan has become the first female author to win the prestigious Cricket Knight Award for her contributions to children's literature throughout her career. She is known for her successful translation of the Harry Potter series (JK Rowling). She has also written many short stories and novels for children, including "The Autobiography of a Pig" which was considered for this year's award.

The First Female Cricket Knight

The 2024 De Men Children's Award organized by the Sports and Culture newspaper (Vietnam News Agency) had a "bumper harvest" when it found a De Men Knight, 5 De Men Aspirations and 2 Awards.

The Cricket Knight Award is the most prestigious award, awarded to authors who either have exceptionally excellent works or have outstanding works that have made it to the final round and have made many contributions to children throughout their lives and careers.

house-translation-family-168808-7013-2253-1688088167.jpg

Author Ly Lan and this year's finalist "Autobiography of a Pig."

This year, the Award has found a worthy author to "award" the title of Knight of Crickets, following in the footsteps of outstanding names such as Nguyen Nhat Anh (2020) and Tran Duc Tien (2023).

Writer Ly Lan was born in 1957 in Thu Dau Mot, Binh Duong province. Many readers have long known her as the translator of the “Harry Potter” series. Starting her literary career in the 1980s, writer Ly Lan has published dozens of literary works including stories, poems, novels, and essays. Her work “The House in the Grass” won the A prize in the Children’s Writing Contest (1982-1984).

Regarding writing for children, writer Ly Lan said that fairy tale-like stories have a special appeal to her, influenced by La Fontaine's Fables, Wu Cheng'en's "Journey to the West ," and later Vishnu Sharma's "Panchatantra."

“A work written for children or for anyone needs the writer's heart, a sincere heart and respect for the reader,” author Ly Lan confided.

She believes that children need entertaining books like they need toys and candy, and literature is the nourishment that nourishes the human soul, fostering empathy and emotional intelligence.

This year, her work "Autobiography of a Pig" was shortlisted.

When finishing this work, writer Ly Lan confided: "Write so that readers become more mature when reading the work."

The writer is currently living abroad. This work was submitted by Tre Publishing House to the competition. Editor Minh Phuc of Tre Publishing House believes that towards the end of the story, readers will realize the maturity of the pig and also realize that they have grown more mature, with the "valuable" life lessons that the author has woven in, such as the courage to choose one's own life, to live without having to imitate anyone."

Associate Professor-Doctor Van Gia, a member of the Jury, commented: “The story is written very professionally. The characters (both animals and humans) are quite interesting. The plot is clear, with many surprises; the language is refined.”

Poet Tran Dang Khoa, Vice President of the Vietnam Writers Association and Chairman of the Jury, commented: “The advantage of this work is that the author understands the life and lifestyle of pigs and many other animals very well, so it is very vivid and very real. The issue the author raises is very good. It is the desire to live freely, not wanting to be a pet... This is the most outstanding work among the entries this time.”

Poet Tran Dang Khoa, Vice President of the Vietnam Writers Association and Chairman of the Jury, presented the Cricket Aspiration Award to poet Lu Mai (left) and poet Le Thanh Ha (right). (Photo: PV/Vietnam+)

With the novel “Autobiography of a Pig” receiving excellent scores in both the preliminary and final rounds, writer Ly Lan was awarded the Cricket Knight Award by the Jury considering his entire career.

bumper season

This year's De Men Children's Award attracted the participation of 135 works composed and completed between January 1, 2023 and April 20, 2024. These works come from two sources, one is from the authors who directly submitted their entries, the other is from nominations from publishers and close collaborators of the Sports and Culture newspaper - artists who always closely follow the artistic life for children.

This is the season with the largest number of entries compared to previous seasons, an increase of 14 entries compared to the last season held in 2023.

Poet Tran Dang Khoa, Chairman of the Jury, said that after 5 seasons, the De Men Children's Award has become more and more lively and diverse, and the quality of the entries has also become higher and more consistent each year.

The poet believes that the De Men Award has had important impacts on the current writing movement for children.

Previously, the Vietnam Writers Association only had a Children's Literature Committee, but now the Association has a Children's Literature Council, equal to the Association's four highest professional councils: poetry, prose, criticism and translation. The Association has also organized creative campaigns for children with the participation of many authors.

“All of these impacts are partly due to the Cricket Awards. In other words, the Cricket Awards have inspired and created an increasingly widespread and practical spread for the current writing movement for children. From the perspective of someone who has written for children and is closely associated with the children’s movement, I can confirm this,” said poet Tran Dang Khoa.

Mr. Le Xuan Thanh, Editor-in-Chief of Sports and Culture Newspaper, spoke at the award ceremony. (Photo: PV/Vietnam+)

Sharing at the Award Ceremony, Mr. Le Xuan Thanh, Editor-in-Chief of Sports and Culture Newspaper, said that the freshness and contemporary quality of today's life are always necessary to attract the public, especially children, to culture and arts. The De Men Children's Award was established 5 years ago to seek new winds in the creation and performance of children's art, for children.

“It is difficult to describe all the freshness of this year's Cricket Awards. A typical example is writer Ly Lan, who is widely known to readers as the translator of 'Hary Potter' , now she also has 'Autobiography of a Pig' . That is 9X girl La Thanh Ha, the author of simple, gentle children's poems, causing critic Van Gia, a member of the Jury, to give her an almost absolute high score and exclaim 'a talent for children's poetry has appeared',” Mr. Le Xuan Thanh shared.

According to journalist Le Xuan Thanh, that is not yet a complete picture of children's art in the past year, but it is all the efforts of the Organizing Committee to inspire children and those who were once children to watch-listen-read./.

LIST OF WORKS WINNING THE 5TH DE MEN AWARD - 2024

Cricket Knight Award

Writer Ly Lan

Cricket Aspiration Award

“Under the Blue Sky” (draft of a novel by Lu Mai)

“The Secret Little Kingdom” (poem by La Thanh Ha, illustrated by Nhu Quynh, Hanoi Publishing House, Crabit Kidbooks)

“The Adventures of Cricket” (4-volume comic book series by LinhRab, Kim Dong Publishing House)

“Moon... where do you come from?” (song by Thai Chi Thanh, based on the poem by Tran Dang Khoa)

“Mysterious Library” (comic book manuscript by Le Sinh Hung, 14 years old)

Prizes from the Organizing Committee

Children's books in the series "Cultivating the Soul" (by writer May, Kim Dong Publishing House)

“The Golden Monkey Bap in Ru Mo” (draft of a novel by Dang Chuong Ngan)