58 Stories Qualify for the Final Round of the ‘Daricheh’ National Short Story Festival

Hossein Abbaszadeh, in an interview with the correspondent of the Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) in Mashhad, announced that the initial judging round of this year’s Daricheh Festival has concluded. Out of 658 works received by the secretariat, 58 stories have successfully qualified for the final stage.

Regarding this year’s judging approach, he elaborated that while the primary condition for participation was a narrative set in a rural environment, the secretariat’s main focus was on the structural integrity of the submitted works. Key criteria for selection included narrative cohesion, creativity in developing the idea, and the author’s skill in crafting a complete story.

Abbaszadeh explained that some entries, despite having acceptable rural settings, were rejected due to weaknesses in their narrative structure. Conversely, stories demonstrating stronger narratives and more creative perspectives advanced to the final stage.

The secretary of the 5th Daricheh National Short Story Festival confirmed that the final stage will involve the main judging panel, and the ultimate results will be unveiled during the closing ceremony.

According to IBNA, the names of those who qualified for the final stage of the 5th Daricheh National Short Story Festival are as follows:

Station (Saeed Mehmandar from Tehran)
Botul (Zahra Alidousti from Qom)
Mangeh Sho (Mohammadreza Mehr Arya from Kermanshah)
Terror in the Village (Ali Tabbakhian from Isfahan)
Black Snow (Alireza Rezaei from Khorramabad)
Eyewitness (Leila Ghavami from Mashhad)
Savior (Alireza Khezri from Bijar)
Root in the Snow (Mona Karami from Kermanshah)
Aydounlu (Zeinab Safaei from Khalkhal)
Fifth Migrant (Majid Taheri from Shiraz)
Hol Hole Kouseh (Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi from Shushtar)
My Throat is Dizzy (Shaghayegh Akbari from Kermanshah)
Heads or Tails (Ali Chaqouchi from Tehran)
Yadollah from Bijar City (Ghasem Bozorgzadeh from Rasht)
War (Zeinab Gholami from Mashhad)
I Wish I Had a Hand to Hug (Mostafa Soleimani)
Shervah of the Palm Grove (Soudeh Fathi Makvand from Tehran)
Mahour (Faeghah Darvish from Tehran)
Dadamala (Mehran Fani from Shiraz)
Black Fate (Zeinab Shahsavari from Tehran)
Among the Palms (Nasibeh Ghorbanpour from Shahriar)
Radio Station (Mahnaz Tabatabaei from Isfahan)
The Girl Who Carried the Sun on Her Shoulder (Mina Sadat Hosseini from Tehran)
Nazarabad (Amirhossein Ruhnia from Razavi Khorasan)
Golab Castle (Leila Shah Moradi from Yasuj)
Cuckoo (Roya Roosta from Firoozabad)
Donkey’s Morsel (Seyed Mohammad Touhidi)
Bear Hunt (Sara Shojaei from Yasuj)
Subatan (Soroush Mastour from Tehran)
Agha Asghar Agha (Narges Sabzeh Meidani)
Scarf (Yasamin Ghafouri from Tehran)
Brick and Bibi Gol (Mohammad Javad Safaei from Fars)
Golbahar (Mansoureh Tabrizi from Tehran)
Everywhere I Step, I Smell Tar (Elaheh Hedayati from Tehran)
Arigh (Yeganeh Pakzad from Kerman)
Philo (Mohammad Mostafa Rajabi from Tehran)
Wail (Mohammadreza Ebrahimi Ivar from North Khorasan)
Poisonous Voice (Zohreh Shokrollahi from Najafabad)
A Harvest of Wishes (Mahnaz Shoeib from Isfahan)
Fear (Zohreh Mohammadi from Karaj)
Little Wing of the Swallow (Fatemeh Mohammad Yousefi Vardanajani from Shahrekord)
Zagros Scar (Afsaneh Khanlari from Kermanshah)
My Name Was in the Wind (Farhang Faghih Larijani from Tehran)
Dance of Death (Najmeh Khadem Al-Mo’menin Fouladi from Isfahan)
Hidden Letters (Mohammad Amin Firoozi from Shiraz)
Scarecrow’s Share of the Human World (Vahid Rashidi)
Completely Forgotten (Bardiya Azami from Tehran)
Elegy for Crabs (Zahra Firoozi from Hashtgerd)
Scaleless Fish (Amin Sepahvand from Qom)
Under the Kaki Palms (Farzad Kadkhodaee Rad from Tehran)
I Miss My Mom and Dad (Farang Aghaei)
Arsalan’s Love (Maryam Mardi from Tabriz)
Shoumaramnd (Mohammad Hassan Hekmat)
Starlings on Mulberry Trees (Azadeh Taghiabadi)
Navajesh (Ali Shadkami from Tehran)
Qaraq (Maasoumaliv Seyedi from Kermanshah)
A Handful of Earth (Hoda Hashemian from Kermanshah)
Whispers of the Silent Forest (Anoosh Razzazan from Mashhad)