Nguyen Huu Thinh is again head of the Vietnam Writers\' Association and shares his thoughts with DTiNews.
 |
| Writer Nguyen Huu Thinh |
Nguyen Huu Thinh was recently re-elected president of the Vietnam Writers’ Association, meaning he will retain his executive seat for a third five-year term, a move that is unprecedented in the association’s more than fifty-year history. In an informal interview, the famous post-war poet and head of Vietnam’s largest and most influential literary organization voiced his plans, concerns, and hopes for the future of the Association, as well as for all of Vietnamese literature.
When asked how he felt upon being re-elected, Mr. Thinh expressed gratitude, saying he was touched that the members of the Association placed so much trust in him. Still, he conceded, he has some concerns about meeting sometimes divergent expectations placed on him in his post. He outlined his duties as president, counting them off on his fingers: “to unite the association, to create the best conditions for writers to reach their highest potential, and to lead a process of improvement of all the affiliations of the association.” These affiliated organizations include the association’s Nha van (Writers) and Van hoc Nuoc ngoai (Foreign Literature) magazines and Van Nghe (Literature and Arts) newspaper, plus their own publishing house, museum and cultural center, and film company.
Regarding his top priorities for the next five-year term, Mr. Thinh revealed a three-fold agenda. The top priority, he stated, is to increase the exchange between Vietnamese writers and literary figures in other countries, in part by selecting the best Vietnamese literary works of today to be introduced overseas. The second, he continued, is to increase the standard of professionalism among members and the literary world at large, which will include building a more systematic planning strategy within the Association. The third and final objective, he concluded, is to continue to discover new talents from the vast pool of young writers producing creative literary work in Vietnam today.
In order to meet the first aim of further integration with the world outside Vietnam’s borders, said Mr. Thinh, the association has plans to establish a translation center, which is currently in the proposal stage. Once the center is set up, the Association will be able to select the best literary works to be translated and disseminated to a broader global market. The choice of those works, he says, will be “based on three criteria: talent, talent and talent.” Considerations of age, style, and specific genre are not important, he affirmed.
Mr. Thinh emphasized that there are many up-and-coming young writers and new talents who show great promise for the future: writers like Nguyen Ngoc Tu, Nguyen Thi Diep Mai, Tran Thi Huyen Trang, and Nguyen Phan Que Mai. The latter has just won the Hanoi Writers’ Association’s Poetry of the Year Prize with her latest poetry collection, Freeing Myself, as well as the top prize in the “Poetry about Hanoi” poetry competition in honor of the 1000 year anniversary of the city. Mr. Thinh said he is particularly looking forward to next summer’s 8th National Conference for Young Writers, which takes place once every five years.
Turning to the challenges to be faced by him and the Association, Mr. Thinh said the most frightening one is the “worn path,” that is, the old way of doing things, which he sees as threatening to cause stagnation and hinder development. In addition, he stated, the Association and writers today feel some pressure from a public that tends to demand literature that is easy to read but not necessarily of outstanding literary merit. “Average is what sells,” claimed Mr. Thinh, “which makes it more difficult to reach the heights of creativity.” A final challenge, he admitted, is that, despite the importance of building strong partnerships across borders, the influx of outside cultural values “is causing some Vietnamese writers to lose their roots.”
Does Huu Thinh really still find time, among all these demands, to develop his own work? The evidence lies in his latest collection of poetry, which was published this year, plus a forthcoming book of criticism, in the final stages of printing, called Reasons for Hope. Mr. Thinh says he often dreams his poems and writes them as soon as he wakes. And no matter what else must be done, he unfailingly adheres to a strict habit he’s kept for years: to write one poem in his notebook each and every day. If the future of the Vietnam Writers’ Association can be dreamed up and written down with all the creative beauty of one of his poems, then in this man’s hands it is sure to be a bright future indeed.
