Author Lee Wei-jing (李維菁), who passed away in November 2018, is among the recipients of this year’s Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) Book Prize, which were announced yesterday in Taipei.
Lee’s novel The Modern Tale of the Mermaid (人魚紀) won the prize for fiction, the Taipei Book Fair Foundation said.
It organized the prize to recognize books published in Taiwan between Nov. 1, 2018, and Oct. 31 last year.
Lee’s sister-in-law, Lin Yun-hsien (林昀嫺), accepted the award on her behalf, saying that it held a special significance for the author, because she also won it for her debut book in 2011.
Lolita Hu’s (胡晴舫) Islands (群島) and Chen Shu-yao’s (陳淑瑤) The Cloudy Mountain (雲山) were selected for the TIBE Book Prize in fiction, the foundation said.
“Reading [The Cloudy Mountain] will make you feel like falling in love,” Chen said.
Ren Yi-dao (任依島), Chen Yi-ru (陳怡如) and Tsai Ching-hua (蔡慶樺) shared the prize for nonfiction, while Huang Yi-feng, Chang Yeou-yu (張友漁), Shain Lin (林一先) and Granada An (安石榴) took home prizes for children’s and young adult books, the foundation said.
Aquarius Publishing editor-in-chief Chu Ya-chu (朱亞君) won the TIBE Book Prize for editing, it added.
The winners of the Golden Butterfly Award, given for book design, were also announced yesterday.
Hung Chang-lien (洪彰聯) won the gold prize, while Hsieh Jung-ya (謝榮雅) and the Hsu Chung-mao Studio (徐宗懋圖文館) won silver and Cowei Liu (劉克韋) earned bronze, the foundation said.
The 13 works nominated for a Golden Butterfly Award are to be sent to the Leipzig Book Fair in Germany to compete in the international Best Book Design From All Over the World competition, foundation chairman Robert Lin (林訓民) said.
An awards ceremony is to be held on Feb. 4, when the exhibition opens at the Taipei World Trade Center’s Hall 1 until Feb. 9, the foundation said.
The exhibition provides a platform for Taiwan’s publishing industry to collaborate and engage with the international community, Lin said, adding that it hopes the fair would advance the field.
All of the works nominated for a TIBE Book Prize or Golden Butterfly Award are to be exhibited on the second floor of the exhibition space, he said.
The foundation has also partnered with Eslite Bookstore to display and sell the award-winning books at five major locations in Taiwan, he said.
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