Honorees of the First Edition of the 'Noqte Review' Festival Recognized

At the closing ceremony of the first edition of the 'Noqte Review' festival, the jurors, noting the difficulties of reading under today's conditions, stressed the need to present good books to audiences in an appealing way.

According to Ambassador Arjan, the closing ceremony of the first edition of the "Review Point" festival was held in the presence of the jury members and a group of writers and reviewers in the Tahereh Safarzadeh Hall of Tehran's art district, and the winners were honored.

Mehdi Pirhadi, the secretary of the "Point Review" website and the secretary of this festival, stated at the beginning of the ceremony, referring to the process of the formation of this media: the main idea of starting the "Point Review" website was formed from a book reading group in the "Point Book Club". The friends present in this club, when it came to criticizing and commenting on books, wrote full and solid texts that could be published officially with a little editing and revision. Therefore, considering the lack of a dedicated database in the field of book reviews, it was decided to launch an independent site in this field.

He also added about the quantity and quality of the works received by the secretariat of the first edition of the festival: about 50 works were sent to the secretariat of the festival in two sections, "short review" and "long review", and these works were reviewed and ranked in a professional and meticulous manner by the judges of Maryam Chiharghani, Hossam Ebony and Bande.

In the continuation of this ceremony, a sincere dialogue took place among the judges of the festival, and Maryam Chiharghani, a writer, researcher and judge of the festival, answered a question about how her interest in reading was formed and said: My first experience of the world of books was with "Fables of La Fontaine", which is a work similar to "Kalila and Demeneh" in our literature. I was 5 or 6 years old then and my father read it to me many times. It is interesting to know that until I was 9 years old, my favorite book was "Mukhtarnameh illustrated story".

He continued: Although I had studied mathematics and physics in high school, I entered the library department at the university and continued my studies until the doctorate in the field of books. Today, when I look at the path taken, I see that I am in a position where I have to introduce books to others and be a reference point for the audience in this field.

Hossam Ebenous, writer and activist in the field of books and another judge of this event, referring to his childhood memory and the beginning of his love for reading, said: They say that the best friendships begin with a fight, and my friendship with books also had such a story. I remember I was less than 10 years old when my mother and brother came home from shopping and brought a book with them. I tore a few pages from that book out of frustration that they didn't take me with them, and at that moment I could hear the sound of the book moaning.

He added: Little by little, I fell in love with books, and during university, anyone looking for me had to find me in the library. In the following, I professionally entered the field of journalism in the field of books.

The attractive introduction of the book is the solution to overcome the audience's excuses

In another part of this meeting, Chiharghani stated with the pathology of the current state of study and ways of promoting reading in the society: These days the condition of books is not good and part of this situation is due to us who are standing on the side of books. To improve these conditions, we must focus more on two axes; First, serious investment in children and second, the answer to the excuse of lack of time and lack of good books that is heard from many people these days.

This book researcher emphasized: As readers, we have a duty to introduce good works to people in an attractive and effective way so that they return to reading. Reviewers should also present the experience they went through while reading a work to the audience in the best possible way.

The martyr leader's interest in the book was real and far from any gesture

In the continuation of this ceremony, a part of the leader of the Martyr of the Islamic Revolution was broadcast about the importance of books and reading. Referring to the deep connection of the martyred leader with reading, Hossam Ebenus said: both his supporters and opponents knew very well that his interest in the book is completely real and they do not make any gestures in this regard.

Mentioning a memory of the martyred leader's continuous pursuits in the field of literature, he added: In the 70s, when Nader Ebrahimi's works were not as popular as they are today, Ayatollah Khamenei sought the continuation of the volumes of the book "Fire Without Smoke" from this author. Despite all his busy schedule, he was always in the news of the publishing market.

Maryam Chiharghani also pointed out the rare position of the martyred leader in the field of reading: He was not only the most reading leader in the world, but also the most reading person in the world and a perfect role model for those who study. Reading books is like a paternal inheritance from him and anyone who claims to follow the martyred leader should learn from his character and move forward in this field as in other fields.

The need for reviewers to pay attention to Iranian authored works

In the final part of this conversation, Mehdi Pirhadi, as the secretary and judge of the festival, asked the other two judges to express their assessment of the quality of the works submitted to the festival.

Pointing to the strengths and weaknesses of the reviewed works, Maryam Chiharghani stated: Some of the submitted works had brilliant ideas and delighted me; However, some of the writings were also inclined towards mere introduction or blog writing, which shows that we still need training in this area.

He also addressed the authors of the book review field and added: I want reviewers to pay more attention to books authored by Iranian authors. The translated works are usually handpicked from among the best foreign books, and therefore, their direct comparison with Iranian authored books is not fair and accurate.

In his overall assessment of the works of the festival, Hossam Ebenus said: In general, the quality of the reviews received at the festival was acceptable and good, but when studying some works, it was clear that the author is young or has not read many books yet. It should be noted that review writing is a continuous activity and growth and maturity in it will depend on persistence and continuous practice.

At the end of this ceremony, the winners of the first round of the "Review Point" festival were introduced and honored.

In the "long review" section, Amir Abili won the first place, Fatemeh Sadat Razavi Alavi won the second place, and Somia Kishori took the third place. Also, in this section, Zahra Jahanpima, Zahra Zafarani, Ibrahim Kazemi-Moghadam, Masoume Tahidi, Ramin Zarei, Maryam Irfanifar and Razia Rahmani Turkman were honored as other winners. In the "Short review" section, Ebrahim Kazemi-Moghadam was introduced as the chosen one.