December 1st, 2022 will be a
night to remember. After a long semester of organizing a national award contest
for children and young reader books, the award ceremony took place. The prize
was the book would be illustrated and published by a well-known publishing
company besides the publicity involved in promoting the book. What a wonderful opportunity!
There
were 207 entries and six judges three from USP (the university of Sao Paulo)
and three from UBE (the writers’ union of Brazil), which I am a part of. Organizing
and working on this event was a lot of work, but very pleasant and educational.
The
award ceremony was streamed live from the House of Japanese culture at USP; it
was the only auditorium available at the date. Although it was a pretty tense
ceremony due to the fact that the 10 finalists (9 because one missed at the
last minute due to covid) were there and the winner would be announced at the
end of the ceremony, it was a very emotional evening.
The
organization was done over several zoom videos which were pretty interesting. Once
the candidates started sending material, then the fun began. The reading of the
stories was fun too, but not so easy to choose from. The easy ones to eliminate
from the pile were those which did not fit the criteria.
Since
it was the first time the award would be given a trophy needed to be created
and also participation certificates for all the finalists. My part in the award
ceremony was to hand out the certificates; unfortunately due to the new COVID
wave, hugging was not possible.
The
winner was a sweet and talented writer from Belem do Para, northeast of Brazil,
who gave an emotional acceptance speech which brought tears to everyone's eyes.
What
a memorable evening! I'm surely looking forward to the 2023 award event.
Written:
December 2, 2022
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