Winners of the 2019 Taipei International Book Exhibition literature awards were announced Jan. 11, spotlighting the diversity and richness of Taiwan’s publishing sector.
 
The Chinese-language TIBE Book Prize recognizes three writers each for fiction and nonfiction as well as a single recipient for editing. This year, three authors were also honored in the new category for children and young adult publications.
 
Taiwan’s Luo Yi-jun and Zhang Guixing and Hong Kong’s Dong Kai-cheung picked up the fiction prizes. Luo’s novel is a series of reflections on the nation’s social development presented through the daily interactions of an ill middle-aged man.
 
Zhang, who grew up in rural Malaysia, was honored for his book charting the struggles of an ethnic Chinese community living in a tropical forest in the Southeast Asian country during World War II. Dong’s work follows the extramarital affair of a university professor after his wife enrolls in a one-year writing program overseas.
 
The nonfiction awards went to Taiwan writers A-po, Chen Chao-ju and Hsieh Kai-te for books exploring how people in Asian nations rebuilt their lives following earthquakes; romantic relationships between people with physical disabilities; and the author’s family life as a gay man, respectively.
 
In best publications for children and young adults, renowned illustrators Jimmy Liao and Tom Liu claimed prizes for their playful picture books. Chen Chun-yao, an assistant professor of life sciences at Tzu Chi University in eastern Taiwan’s Hualien County, also won for his work offering an introduction to bacteria.
 
The editing honor went to Wang Chia-hsuan from New Taipei City-based Gusa Publishing for his role in developing texts that examine the political, economic and international affairs of the Middle East, South Asia and the U.S.
 
According to the Ministry of Culture, the TIBE Book Prize is a major platform for highlighting Chinese-language literature and the vibrancy of Taiwan’s publishing sector. Each winner will receive a trophy and cash prize of NT$100,000 (US$3,245) at the exhibition’s opening ceremony Feb. 12 at Taipei World Trade Center.
 
Organized by Taipei Book Fair Foundation, TIBE is Taiwan’s largest annual publishing industry expo. Set to run through Feb. 17, this year’s edition will feature Germany as its theme country with the aim of spotlighting the literature and culture of the European country and strengthening related exchanges between the two sides. (CPY-E)