Friday, March 29, 2024
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Hohe Book Awards announces finalists

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HOHE Literary Awards, an annual books award, announces its finalists last Monday after the eight months evaluation of the Judges. Organizing committee made the 15 finalists for three categories available for the public to vote on the final three winners for each category. The vote of the public will amount 20 percent while the vote of the judge will take the rest.
Every category has three judges which are prominent Authors, Critiques, and Academicians elected by the board of the Award, according to Zelalem Meheretu a coordinator at the Award. The Board is a collaboration of well-known literature Professors and authors.
North East Marketing, Addis Ababa University (AAU) and Ethiopian National Archive and Library Agency (NALA) are the trios organizing the award and this year Waliya Beer sponsors the event.
For the best fiction book of the year, category 19 books were registered while 17 books were registered for the best children books. The best poem collection book of the year gets 24 entrants.
The judges shortlisted Semard, Alemenor, Gyresame, Zre qoretamiwe and Befikir sem to be the finalists for the best long fiction published in 2009. Yetegeletu Ayenoch, Yemaleda Debab, Kesetegna Adari Yetekoreqe Saq, Yehagere Neqesat and Nefas Yanesaw Tilla made it to the final round to be the best poem collection of the year. Ababa Tiliku Ena Leloch Temeheratwi Teretoche, Ashangulite, Yegomeje Jib, and Tewodros Ugaz Mohamed are the final books to be selected as the best children’s book of the year.
Zelalem stressed that there is one author whose two books were selected to be in final five for the category of children books which has happened last year also.
“There are limited children book writers and they publish multiple books a year, that is a segment which the society needs to work more as kids are the roots of the generation,” he told Capital.
Each winner will be awarded a trophy, certificate, and a chance to republish the winning book up to 3000 copies which will be decided with the negotiation between the author and the sponsor printing company. Usually, authors get around 15% payment of the total sale according to Zelalem, who referred the award to solve this problem too.
“Authors will get 40% up to 50% shares from the profit with an immediate payment,” he said. “They shouldn’t wait until the entire books are sold rather after they sell their idea they also should get the payment. We are negotiating with Book world to be our printing partner for this year’s award and I hope it will be fruitful.”
Before starting Hohe the North Eastern Marketing do a research on the sustainability and effectiveness of previous awards and took the useful lessons out of them. Zelalam mentioned the Emperor Haileselase Award to be a life-changing award for the authors.
“We are focused to make the award sustainable and attractive with all the challenges,” he told Capital. “Our company is undertaking the event with all the financial loss but with a success in encouraging the literature community.
Last year at the first Hohe Award session Adam Reta win the first category for long fiction with its book Yesenebet Kelemat, Abere Ayalew’s poem collection Fird ena Ird and Asres Bekel’s Yebeza Buchela won.
The vote from the readers will be collected via text message through 8240 with HA before the text. The short message will cost three birr and it is used to support the event.

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