These Are the Champion of the Sungai Jantan Literature Festival, Chosen by the Jury

News24xx.com -

SIAK - Bayu Aji Setiawan, Ahmad Ijazi, and Monda Gianez were the winners in the Jantan Sungai Literature Festival (FSSJ) held by the Education and Culture Office of Siak Regency in 2019. The three won first place in three different categories.

Bayu (originally from Mempura District) succeeded in winning the poetry category with a poem entitled "We Live in the River". Bayu set aside nearly 80 manuscripts for the competition which could only be participated by participants from the Siak Regency. In second place in this category is M Arief Al Husein (Koto Gasib) with the poem "Cencalok". The third place was won by Deni Irawan (Mempura) with a poem entitled "Turbid".

In the short story category, Ahmad Ijazi from Pekanbaru won the short story titled "Balian, Invited Ancestor Spirit". This short story set aside more than 40 manuscripts that participated in the contest. Short story entitled "Asa on the Banks of the Sungai Jantan" by Lusi Arfani (Bengkalis) succeeded in occupying the second position. The third place was occupied by Deni Afriadi (Pekanbaru) with the short story "Keranda Plastik".

For the drama script category, three writers from Pekanbaru dominated the champions. Monda Gianez with a script titled "Dodoi Reject Bala" managed to become champion. Following this was the manuscript "Air Mata Senja" by Joni Hendri and "Jantan" (Rian Harahap).

The head of the organizing committee of the activity, Zulkarnain Al Idrus, explained, the committee and the Office of Education and Culture of Siak Regency were very grateful that this competition received a positive response from the writers, both from Siak and Riau. There are around 125 manuscripts in total that enter the committee.

"For a competition organized by a district-level institution and the first time it was held, this is encouraging. Hopefully in the future the numbers will increase again," explained Zulkarnain.

He added, in the future, there is a possibility that this competition will be open to the public for writers from all over Indonesia for several categories. He said he was still reviewing the categories to be contested to the public and to the districts of Siak and Riau with the consideration of giving space to the authors of Siak and Riau.

In another part, the Head of the Jury Team, SPN Marhalim Zaini MA, explained, for the first time the competition was held, the FSSJ had been very successful. According to Marhalim, with the lack of literary writing competitions in Riau, what was done by the Siak Regency Education and Culture Office deserves high appreciation.

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"The Riau literary community must give high appreciation to the Siak Regency Education and Culture Department who has organized the Sungai Jantan Literature Festival with three direct categories. There has been no literary contest in Riau for a long time," explained the graduate of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences (FIB) University of Gajah Mada University ( UGM) Yogyakarta.

The same thing was also conveyed by other judges, Kunni Masrohanti and Hary B Koriun. According to Kunni, this event must be maintained and if it can be increased again so that it continues to be a lighter for writers in Riau to produce the best work.

"The Jantan River Literature Festival is very proud event of Siak and Riau because this activity has become a trickle of water during the lonely contest or literary writing competition in Riau in recent years," said Kunni, a woman born in Sabak Auh, Siak, who is also the Chairwoman of Indonesian Women's Poets this.

The plan, said Zulkarnain, the manuscripts of the three categories of the competition will be recorded by the committee. For poetry, 40 best manuscripts, 20 best short stories, and 5 best drama scripts will be selected.

"Hopefully by the end of December 2019, all scripts will become books and will be distributed to all participants whose scripts are included in the books," explained Zulkarnain, ***