Iran Review

Iranian author Shirin Nezam-Mafi has been nominated for the 141st Akutagawa Prize, the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature said.
The prize is dedicated to new writers of serious fiction for a story written in Japanese, the report said adding that Nezam-Mafi is the sixth candidate from a foreign country to be nominated for the award.

The nominated Iranian work, “Shiroi Kami” (White Paper) depicts a romance between two students at the time of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988).

The prizewinners are expected to be announced in Tokyo on July 15.

Chinese novelist Yang Yi was the first nonnative Japanese speaker to win the prize last year.

Nezam-Mafi began to learn Japanese language while she was going to high school in Tehran. She later moved to Japan in 1999 and continued her studies at Kobe University’s graduate school of engineering and is currently working at a company as a systems engineer.

Her novel “White Paper” also won the 108th Bungakukai Shinjinsho, or new author’s prize in April this year. She also won a literary award for foreign students in 2006.

The Akutagawa Prize is a Japanese literary award presented semi-annually. It was established in 1935 in memory of author Ryunosuke Akutagawa. It is awarded in January and July to the best serious literary story published in a newspaper or magazine by a new or rising author.