1. The De Men Children's Award, established in 2020, has created a vibrant atmosphere for children's literature in the country. However, the fact that prose is "overwhelming" in the award seasons has led many people to believe that the De Men Award is "prejudiced" against poetry!
Therefore, when the manuscript of the poetry collection There is a Flat Earth in Your Eyes by Ly Thang Long (last year it was the poetry collection Secret Small Kingdom by La Thanh Ha) was honored at the 6th De Men Children's Awards 2025, it dispelled that "rumor". According to the jury, Ly Thang Long's poetry collection "impressed with the combination of an innocent look and the ability to evoke deep thoughts...".
The poetry collection There is a Flat Earth in Your Eyes consists of 26 poems, most of which are composed in free form but still rich in melody. Through the poems: When you are sleeping, Where you have passed, You also have a train station, When you stumble, Wanderers and mother's advice..., Ly Thang Long seems to be whispering to the children, who are also the children inside him. The topics in his poems are very diverse, from childhood dreams, family affection, the journey of growing up, to thoughts about the flat era, where the world is both vast and lonely.
In fact, Ly Thang Long is not completely a "newbie" in literature. Before the poetry collection There is a Flat Earth in Your Eyes, in 2021, he released the story collection How Strange Puberty is (Kim Dong Publishing House), bringing funny stories and changes in the psychology of puberty. This is not an easy topic, so it seems that not many authors have exploited it. "Initially, I sent a manuscript of a long story to Kim Dong Publishing House, but it was rejected because at that time I had not yet perfected my writing techniques and structure. However, the Publishing House representative said that in my manuscript there were very interesting highlights about gender colors, along with a unique writing style, so they wanted me to write a collection of short stories about puberty. That was the motivation for me to complete the story collection How Strange Puberty is", Ly Thang Long recalled.
Before joining the army, Ly Thang Long was a member of the Literature Committee - Dong Nai Province Literature and Arts Association. He said that his father was a commanding officer who often worked away from home, so since he was a child, he mainly lived with his mother, a civil servant in the health sector. Although strict in raising children, surprisingly, his mother was very "generous" in buying books for her children to read. In addition, his father also read quite a lot of books, so when he grew up, he inherited that valuable "asset". From his passion for reading, Ly Thang Long gradually picked up a pen without realizing it.
2. A special thing is that the manuscript of the poetry collection There is a Flat Earth in Your Eyes was completed by Ly Thang Long during his military service at the Dong Nai Provincial Military Command. Graduating from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education in 2024, he volunteered to join the army. According to Ly Thang Long, the training and duties in the army were very hard, so often at the end of the day, when he lay down on the bed, he fell asleep immediately, sometimes his hands were shaking when holding a bowl and chopsticks, not daring to dream of holding a pen. “The day I put my backpack on my shoulders, I determined that I might have to stop writing for at least two years or more, when my previous literary path had only just begun to blossom. But in the military environment, I wrote whenever I could, even in my most dreamy moments. I always had a pen and pieces of paper ready in my shirt and trouser pockets, I had to write every word...”, Ly Thang Long shared.
Ly Thang Long said that he is expected to be discharged from the army before Tet Binh Ngo in 2026. After completing his service, he will spend time traveling and writing books to experience more before settling down. “Of course, all plans are only relative and I rarely share my plans with anyone, including family members, before they happen. Because life always has surprises, just like the way people end each chapter of a novel. If it goes astray, we can only use perseverance to rewrite it again. And that also requires a lot of courage,” Ly Thang Long expressed.
Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/ly-thang-long-chang-quan-nhan-tre-me-van-chuong-post806039.html
![[Maritime News] Container shipping faces overcapacity that will last until 2028](https://vphoto.vietnam.vn/thumb/402x226/vietnam/resource/IMAGE/2025/7/30/6d35cbc6b0f643fd97f8aa2e9bc87aea)
Comment (0)