Literary Master 1978

"Oh! I said that "Contemporary" is worthy of being a famous journal. The editors are all sharp-eyed and have unique vision.

You said it was a coincidence. I just finished writing that novel and Lao Li came to me. This novel is really prepared for your magazine."

"Haha, you are right!" Zhu Changsheng laughed heartily.

When he got home in the evening, Lin Chaoyang told Tao Yushu: "My novel was accepted by "Contemporary" and will be published in the second issue of this year. The manuscript fee is 10 yuan per thousand words."

"10 yuan per thousand words?" Tao Yushu's big eyes clicked twice, "That's 2,000 yuan in manuscript fees?"

"That's right!"

Tao Yushu hugged him all of a sudden, "We really don't have to worry about the house payment this time!"

The foreseeable sales of "The Wreath under the Mountain" will definitely be explosive, and the number of copies and the manuscript fees will not be small. In addition to the manuscript fees of this novel, they can not only pay off the house payment this year, but may also save some money.

"Are you happy?" Lin Chaoyang asked.

Tao Yushu nodded, smiling.

Two days later, No. 2 Shatan North Street.

This was originally the Red Flag magazine. In 1978, the Federation of Literary and Art Circles was restored. Because the original office building was occupied by the Commercial Press and Zhonghua Book Company, there was no office location, so they could only build several rows of wooden houses in the courtyard of No. 2 Shatan North Street as temporary offices for the Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

The Federation of Literary and Art Circles is a group member of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, so the office is also here.

This year, the Federation of Literary and Art Circles took back the publishing rights of People's Literature from Renwen Press and handed it over to its own publishing house, Writers Publishing House.

As a matter of course, the editorial department of People's Literature was also arranged to work here.

Compared with the office conditions at Renwen Press, the editorial conditions of People's Literature are undoubtedly much more difficult than before.

The National Excellent Short Story Award was sponsored by the Federation of Literary and Art Circles last year and hosted by People's Literature. Because People's Literature had not yet separated from Renwen Press, Renwen Press was nominally the organizer of the award.

It's just that this year, People's Literature was taken back by the Literary Association and returned to the Writers Publishing House, so the organizer no longer has anything to do with the Humanities Publishing House.

Last year was the first time the award was awarded. As the first national literary award in the Chinese literary world, the National Excellent Short Story Award caused a sensation in the domestic literary world.

Liu Xinwu's "Class Teacher", Mo Shen's "Window", Li Tuo's "Wish You Hear This Song", Lu Xinhua's "Scars", Zhang Chengzhi's "Why Riders Sing to Their Mothers", Jia Pingwa's "Full Moon"...

This award made a large number of young and middle-aged writers famous. This year is the second year of the award. With the influence created last year, the attention of the literary world and the public to the award is naturally self-evident.

The National Excellent Short Story Award is hosted by People's Literature, and the editorial department has launched the award selection activities since October last year.

After the announcement of the selection, it quickly received enthusiastic responses from all sides, and the momentum was even greater than the first session.

As of February 10 this year, the editorial department of People's Literature received a total of 257,885 "selection opinion forms" and recommended 2,000 novels, which is a significant increase compared to last year's award data, fully demonstrating the readers' enthusiasm for participating in the award activities, which is unprecedented.

In the past few months, the selection of the National Excellent Short Story Award has always been the top priority of the editorial department of People's Literature.

According to the award procedure, the National Excellent Short Story Award will be recommended by readers through the selection opinion form of People's Literature, and then experts will review it based on the recommendations of the masses.

The first selection committee consisted of 25 famous writers and critics, including Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Liu Baiyu, Feng Mu, Sha Ting, Yan Wenjing, Chen Huangmei, Zhang Tianyi, Zhou Libo and other well-known figures in the domestic literary world.

This session has old judges who have withdrawn, and new judges have joined, such as Ding Ling and Wang Meng.

Today, the editorial department of People's Literature summarized the opinions of the judges, which also means that the results of the second National Excellent Short Story Award have basically come out.

The reason why it is "basic" is that the results will be sent to the judges for revision and the final selection will be determined on March 16.

"As expected, The Shepherd is far ahead, with 25,910 votes, and it is also the most popular in the jury." Wang Fu sighed as he looked at the list.

Cui Daoyi smiled and said, "It's normal. The Shepherd is the pinnacle of scar literature. Last year, Scar and Class Teacher were both successfully selected, so there is no reason why it can't be selected.

And the completion and artistry of this novel are also unique. It not only accuses and criticizes Buzz Buzz, but also reflects and cares about humanities.

It's a pity that Jiang Zilong's "Director Qiao's Taking Office" can only be ranked second."

Wang Fu said, "Hey, I heard that someone recently classified The Shepherd as reflective literature, right?"

After she finished speaking, there was laughter in the editorial department.

This laughter, of course, has an allusion.

Since the whole year of last year, the atmosphere in the literary world has gradually become conservative due to political factors.

Then just last month, President Hu took a high position, and the originally cold atmosphere suddenly became warm and blossoming, and this atmosphere was quickly reflected in the literary world.

After this change, the scar literature trend that was originally rampant in the literary world gradually turned around.

The "reflective literature" proposed by Lin Chaoyang in his article "The Inevitable Rise and Decline of Scar Literature" was brought up again by some people.

But this time is different from the previous situation. Previously, Lin Chaoyang was criticized by a large number of people in the literary world because of this article, but this time, his article was regarded as a criterion by many people.

The trend of reflective literature is gradually rising. As the first person to propose this concept in the public media, Lin Chaoyang's "The Shepherd" was also naturally classified by many people as reflective literature.

In addition, there are a number of works including Ru Zhijuan's "The Story of the Wrong Editing", Zhang Yigong's "Prisoner Li Tongzhong", Fang Zhi's "The Traitor".

In less than a year, because of an article, Lin Chaoyang started to be praised again after being criticized. This matter is full of realism's irony and magical absurdity, which makes everyone who knows the ins and outs of the matter can't help laughing.

"But it's okay to say that "The Shepherd" is reflective literature. The reflective spirit of this novel goes beyond simple venting and accusation. Even in reflective literature, it deserves to be a banner." Cui Daoyi praised.

Scar literature has become popular in the past two years, with the main content of exposing and criticizing the social tragedies and personal sufferings during the period of buzz buzz buzz. Its social significance and literary value are naturally undeniable.

Compared with the more emotional catharsis of scar literature, reflective literature has a stronger ideological and philosophical color. It does not simply stop at retaliatory criticism of the social system, cultural traditions and human weaknesses, but has a more rational analysis and reflection.

It is difficult to say which one is better, but the popularity of both does have some color of alternation between the old and the new to a certain extent.

Lin Chaoyang's novel "The Shepherd" spans two literary trends, which is quite legendary in the eyes of many knowledgeable people in the literary world.

Of course, this change may not even be noticed by the author himself.

It's just that there are always some busybodies in the literary world, and most people have a melon-eating mentality, which makes this kind of discussion have a market.

"Just based on this knowledge, Chaoyang is one level higher than most people in the literary world today." Cui Daoyi sighed.

Wang Fu nodded, "He is indeed knowledgeable, and most importantly, he is courageous and dares to express his attitude. He is really a newborn calf who is not afraid of tigers!"

She added: "Yesterday I heard Rong Dachui say that they got Lin Chaoyang's new novel, and it is a long novel."

The Rong Dachui mentioned by Wang Fu is Rong Shihui, the editor of "Contemporary", a senior editor of Renwen Press. Because of his love of bragging, he got such a nickname.

"Ah!" Cui Daoyi exclaimed in surprise, "Long novel? It's only been a few months?"

"I was also wondering at the time. It is said that it was written in less than a month."

Cui Daoyi was surprised again, "Less than a month? Copying can't be that fast, right? Just listen to Rong Dachui's words."

But when he thought that Lin Chaoyang had written a new novel, but he didn't know about it, and it was intercepted by "Contemporary", he felt uncomfortable.

"Too fast, too fast!" Cui Daoyi muttered to himself for a long time, and then asked Wang Fu, "Do you know what the novel is about?"

"I don't know, Rong Dachui said it was stream of consciousness literature."

"Stream of consciousness? Why did he write about this? No one in China writes about this genre, right?" Cui Daoyi felt that he was constantly surprised today.

"Who knows? Young people absorb knowledge quickly and always have some novel ideas."

Cui Daoyi chatted with Wang Fu, sighing and full of regret.

A few days later, Zhang Dening ran to the Yanda Library with a happy face.

"Chaoyang, your "The Shepherd" won an award!"

"What award?"

"The National Excellent Short Story Award, the award organized by "People's Literature"!"

Zhang Dening's words did not surprise Lin Chaoyang. She came to announce the good news at this time, and it could only be the evaluation of the National Excellent Short Story Award.

"Why are you unhappy?" Zhang Dening saw that Lin Chaoyang's face was flat, and couldn't help asking.

"I'm not unhappy, I'm quite happy." Lin Chaoyang said.

He was indeed very happy to win the award, but because he had expected that "The Horse Herder" would most likely win the award, the joy and excitement he felt when he first heard about the award was greatly reduced.

His face showed a little calmness, and Zhang Dening thought that Lin Chaoyang was pretending to be reserved.

"You have produced many excellent works now, and I am afraid you will win many awards in the future!"

"Awards are not that easy to win."

"The Horse Herder" was published in "Yanjing Literature and Art". The award results were just released, so naturally Zhang Dening, the editor-in-chief, had to inform Lin Chaoyang.

"Just talking about winning the award, are there any bonuses or prizes?" Lin Chaoyang asked.

"I guessed you would ask." Zhang Dening boasted that he had figured out Lin Chaoyang's temper and preferences.

"If the works that won the first prize have not been published in People's Literature, People's Literature will reprint them, and People's Literature Publishing House will compile the winning works into a single volume later.

In addition, the winning authors will be invited to Yanjing for a meeting, and each will be given a commemorative certificate..."

Zhang Dening mentioned that the reprinting of the works and the collection of works by People's Daily were good news for Lin Chaoyang, and he could receive two consecutive royalties, but the commemorative certificate was meaningless.

"Pick out some key points." He reminded.

Zhang Dening rolled his eyes at him, knowing that the "key points" he meant were material rewards.

"The first, second and third prizes will be awarded 100, 80 and 60 yuan in prize money or books respectively."

Zhang Dening was silent after saying this. Lin Chaoyang waited for a long time and asked, "Is it over?"

"It's over."

"It's a national award after all, is that the prize money?"

Zhang Dening said, "But isn't there also a fee?"

"The fee is the fee, the prize money is the prize money, and it's a national award anyway."

Lin Chaoyang shook his head, his face full of disappointment.

Zhang Dening looked at him with disdain and decided to change the subject, "Have you written any new works recently?"

"Yes." Lin Chaoyang said happily.

Zhang Dening was immediately delighted and asked, "Where is the manuscript? Let me see it!"

"I gave it to Contemporary Magazine!"

A bolt from the blue struck, and the smile on Zhang Dening's face froze there.

"Give it to Contemporary? Why give it to Contemporary again?"

Let's not talk about the fact that "The Wreath under the Mountain" was given to People's Literature last time, so how can I give it to Contemporary this time with my new novel?

Before she could start to blame him, Lin Chaoyang said, "They pay a high fee, 10 yuan per thousand words!"

When Lin Chaoyang spoke, he gestured to Zhang Dening, emphasizing the importance of this remuneration standard.

"10 yuan per thousand words, it's not like we won't give it to you!" Zhang Dening said with his eyes wide open.

"You didn't give it to me last time."

Zhang Dening had the urge to vomit blood, "Last time we raised it to 9 yuan, isn't it 10 yuan this time? There must be a gradual process."

"Contemporary doesn't have a gradual process, and neither does Harvest." Lin Chaoyang said confidently.