Winners and librarians (MAKINO Mio, the Grand Prize winner, in the center of the front row)
The award ceremony for the Library Book Review Contest was held on February 4 at the Academy Common on the Surugadai Campus. Thirty-seven book reviews were submitted for the 14th contest this year, and MAKINO Mio (3rd-year student in the School of Business Administration), who wrote a book review for The Edible Woman (Margaret Atwood, translated by Akio Oura), won the Grand Prize. In addition, ADACHI Yui (4th-year student in the School of Political Science and Economics) and HIRATA Ayane (3rd-year student in the School of Information and Communication) were selected for the Excellence Award. A total of 11 students were awarded, including special awards.
At the award ceremony, each winner was presented with a certificate and a supplementary prize by MURAKAMI Kazuhiro, Professor at the School of Law and Director of the Meiji University Library, and representatives from the three supporting bookstores, Kinokuniya, Sanseido, and Maruzen-Yushodo.
Following this, ARAYA Hiroshi, Professor at the School of Agriculture and Deputy Director of the Meiji University Library, said in his comment, “It must have been a good experience to write a book review within limitations, for example, on word count.” and gave advice to the winners by saying, “Every time you write text, polish your text seriously.” He then introduced the opinions of the selection committee members, such as, “The review leads readers to become interested.” and, “The author selected an interesting book.”
MAKINO Mio, who won the Grand Prize, took the stage as the representative of the winners and introduced The Edible Woman as a powerful feminist novel. She said, “I believe in the potential of feminism.”
The contest is held every year to encourage Meiji students to become more interested in reading and to actively use University Libraries. The reviews of the 11 winners will be published in a booklet and distributed at each University Library, and also publicized widely by posting them on the library website, for example.