The lead up to the Lunar New Year is often the time for the Vietnam Writers Association to look back at the past year and honour the most outstanding achievements. This year saw a total of 174 pieces nominated, only 7 of which were selected for the awards.
2016 was considered a ground-breaking year for many literary categories such as poetry, theses, essays and translations. The novel 'Red Rain' by Chu Lai, short story 'The Breeze' by Le Minh Khue and Y Phuong and Nguyen Viet CHien's poems clinched these awards
Based on this, war and patriotism are still a vibrant source of inspiration for writers, alongside new contemporary topics such as humanitarianism and human nature in the modern life.
The event was also a chance to welcome new members to the association and launch a new competition running between 2017 and 2019 to celebrate 60 years of the organisation.
