The final panel meeting and award ceremony of the 21st Wuhu-gan Literary Awards took place last Friday (May 27) in the College of Liberal Arts building. Huang Min-yi (freshman, Industrial Economics) won two first prizes for novel and short-short story. She said: “I started to try my hand at creative writing in senior high school. This was the first time I entered a competition, and I can’t believe I’ve won the first prize. I’m delighted.” The first prizes for modern poetry and essay went to Huang Hsin-huey (senior, Information and Communication) and Wu Yu-sheng (postgraduate, Futures Studies) respectively.

Ms. Li Ang, one of the judges, commented on the variety of genres seen in the entries for the novel and short-short story category. She agreed to sit on the panel of college literary awards because she would like to discover outstanding works and encourage students to write. Generally speaking, the quality of short-short stories was lower than that of novels because most student writers failed to think of a surprise ending, a requisite for the short-short story form, Li said.

Huang Min-yi’s award-winning story, The Story of the Watery Dead, is a science fiction which the three judges found very imaginative but not sophisticated enough in the creation of suspense. The judges suggested that Huang work harder on scientific reasoning and argument. The recommendation prize went to A Sad Village by Kuo Cheng-jie (junior, Chinese): its realistic narrative is a contrast to those fantasy stories in vogue today, but the happy ending smacks of sentimentality. Also, “Home” would be a more focused and appropriate title for this story than the too general term “Village.” Three other stories were also commended by the panel: Should You Fall From the Skies, Female Body, and Fine Snow.

In the short-short story category, Huang Min-yi’s “The Dark Winding Corridor” has an impressive surprise ending: it looks like a love story at first but actually depicts despair and hope. The recommendation prize went to “Same” by Lei Ya-ting (sophomore, International Trade), a touching story about the dramatic change of the protagonist from sameness to difference. Also commended were “The Snail,” “The Last Dinner,” and “Mother and Son.”

Huang Hsin-huey won the first prize for modern poetry with “19 love poems of passion and despair to Kao Cheng-hsuen”, written in a postmodern style which overflows with images. Huang said: “Kao Cheng-hsuen is a real person with whom I was secretly in love for a long time. When I heard of his wedding not long ago, I spent three days writing down my feelings.” Chang An-chi (junior, Spanish) caught the attention of Prof. Chao Wei-min of Chinese department with “Writing Exercises of the Laurel Tree,” for which Prof. Chao donated NT$1,000 for an additional prize. Chang’s poem and “A Thought-ridding Machine” by Huang Kuan-chan (postgraduate, Information Management) both won the recommendation prizes.

The first prize in the essay category went to Wu Yu-sheng’s “Getting Married” about the deep affection between a brother and a sister, a rather uncommon subject. Wu thanked his sister’s getting married for the inspiration that led to this essay. The recommendation prize went to “This and That Girl” by Peng Yu-hsin (senior, Mass Communication). This essay, strongly recommended by one of the judges, Chen Pao-wen, shows obvious female self-awareness in a language rich in half-realistic and half-fantastic images and contrasts. Also commended was “The Map over Memory” by Yang Yu-ting (senior, Chinese), a highly literary essay of intricate structure that looks into the depth of life. (~ Hui-chuan Wang )