KUCHING: Majlis Penyampaian Hadiah Penulisan dan Penerbitan Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) Cawangan Sarawak has been renamed as Anugerah Tinta Kenyalang.
The awards are DBP’s ongoing effort to encourage interest in writing creative and non-creative works, in addition to producing established state writers.
Majlis Anugerah Tinta Kenyalang 2022 and Malam Lestari Bahasa 2022 was held here yesterday.
The awards ceremony was officiated by Daro assemblyman Safiee Ahmad, who is a member of the Board of Directors of DBP and Chief Director of DBP Sarawak Branch Haliman Abang Julai.
“This kind of ceremony needs to be supported to give recognition to the winners and talented artists,” said Safiee.
“Writing needs to be nurtured from interest, seriousness and willingness,” he said, stressing that the government welcomes any form of intellectual activity that leads to the process of restoring the work culture in the local community.
“Various writing competitions and workshops aimed at unearthing new talent need to be intensified in order to build a generation of replacements for established employees who have coloured the writing scene in Sarawak for a long time,” he added.
According to its director, the Sarawak government has given a lot of support and trust to the Sarawak branch of DBP in carrying out linguistic, literary and cultural activities involving the cooperation of agencies and non-governmental organisations.
“Various guidance and strengthening programmes covering the fields of writing, language, literature and publishing have been carried out by the DBP Sarawak branch,” he said.
Preceded by the presentation of the Sarawak State High School Magazine Image Award 2022 won by SMK Baru, Miri, the Sarawak Writers Literary Prize 2021/2022 was won by Roslan Jomel for the short story category, Zainal Abidin Subaili for the poetry category and Dilah Tuah for the Critical Essay category.
In addition, DBP also presented certificates of appreciation to several government departments and agencies that helped a lot including the local media, Suara Sarawak, Utusan Borneo, TVS as a token of appreciation for their support.
Also present was the Director of Sarawak Education Department, Datuk Dr Azhar Ahmad, Miri Division Resident Abdul Aziz Mohd. Yusuf, Chief Executive Officer of SV News Sdn Bhd and Tribune Sdn Bhd, Datuk Dr. Jeniri Amir, and writer, Datuk Dr. Adi Badiozaman Tuah.
