Old age but not old mind

Author Nong Van Kim with his familiar camera on every trip.

Author Nong Van Kim was born in 1944 and is now 81 years old. He lives a simple life in a small house filled with books in Na Phac commune. Before meeting author Nong Van Kim, we had the opportunity to read his outstanding short stories such as: Bitterness; The Red Fairy; The Last Hunter in Ban Giang... Therefore, we were quite surprised to know that he had never attended any professional writing training course and that he had only recently come to literature and art after retiring in 2003.

Since his high school days, Nong Van Kim's favorite subject was Literature. During those years, the school library was where he was attached and often stayed until the end of class. He read every page of domestic literary works and classic novels of foreign literature. To meet the practical requirements of life at that time, after graduating from high school, he temporarily put aside his passion and chose to study Agriculture ...

The time working in the agricultural sector was decades of attachment to the base, which was a rich repository of practical documents for him. At first, it was just notes in the workbook, but unexpectedly it became a vivid material for literature later.

His debut work , The Last Hunter in Ban Giang, marked a special turning point in his literary career. This is a short story about the emotions of a veteran, talented hunter in Ban Giang, with the theme of environmental protection.

Through his lively pen, author Nong Van Kim brings to readers many valuable details about the mountainous region, such as dialogue in ethnic languages, or the habits of the highland people... The work won First Prize in the contest "Composing poetry, literature and songs about Bac Kan for the second time in 2006 - 2009".

Since then, he has continuously won many literary awards at the provincial and central levels. Writing with a spirit of gratitude for life, he spent all his time, effort and personal funds to travel everywhere to find characters. There was a trip he went all the way to Ho Chi Minh City just to listen to a story. When he returned home, he would work hard with his old camera, open his notebook, and quietly live with his characters until dawn.

At the end of 2024, author Nong Van Kim introduced to readers the novel The Children of the Mountain published by Hong Duc Publishing House. The novel was built on three real prototypes, reflecting the difficult life of ethnic minorities in the Hoa mountain region (Phja Bjoóc) before the August Revolution in 1945.

Without beautifying reality, he realistically portrayed the bad customs, poverty, and darkness that covered the lives of the people in the highlands. They were exploited by the enemy, they suffered from long-standing bad customs, but from the darkness, they courageously went through thorns to step towards the light. Each character brought a different perspective on life, the author delicately portrayed very real people, close to everyday life.

The novel The Children of the Mountain was honored to win the B prize, Award for composing and promoting literary and journalistic works on the theme "Studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and style", phase II, 2021-2025 period.

Over 80 years old, the Tay ethnic man still works diligently at the small table next to the window. Occasionally, he rides his motorbike over steep passes to find documents. For him, each trip, each story is a way to keep his mind "green", to keep literature germinating in the heart of his homeland's mountains and forests...

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/dat-va-nguoi-thai-nguyen/202510/tuoi-gia-nhung-tri-khong-gia-20273e6/