KATHMANDU, JUNE 23

Kabita Rai of Bhojpur district has emerged winner of the National Poem Competition, 2021 organised here today.

Amrita Ismriti of Dhading district secured second position and Bardia's Niranjana Kumari Chand, Taplejung's Sabita Baral and Nuwakot's Prakash Silwal jointly stood third in the competition.

Rai's Desh ko Naksha secured first position in the competition.

Besides, Ismriti's Dadhelo Pachi Basanta Aaucha, Chand's Yugin Pratidhwani, Baral's Aama ma aaye aba, and Silwal's Bodhisatwa ko khop, were shortlisted.

The winner of the competition will receive Rs 50,000 while the second winner will take home Rs 40,000. Similarly, those securing third position will bag Rs 30,000 each, according to Nepal Academy, which had organised the poetry competition. The winner and the runner-ups will also be feted with certificate of honour at an apt time.

Inaugurating the 64th anniversary of the Academy, chancellor Ganga Prasad Uprety, said that the national poem competition was conceived by Mahakavi Laxmi Prasad Devkota and executed by Yugkavi Siddicharan Shrestha.

Coordinator of the National Poem Competition, 2021 and the Academy's member Prof Hemnath Poudel said any literary creation depicting the social realities would come out as the best ones.

Another member of the Academy Prof Jagat Prasad Upadhyay expressed happiness over the good literary creations by utilising spare time during the prohibitory order enforced to contain the second wave of COVID-19.

'There were a total of 764 contenders in the competition.

Of them, 41 were shortlisted.

Eight Nepalis residing in various countries abroad had also participated in the competition, while contestants from 20 districts of the country had submitted their poems,' said communication Coordinator at the Academy Sashi Lumumbu.

A total of 15 staffers at the Academy were honoured with cash prize worth Rs 15,000 each in recognition of their longstanding service to the Academy.

Of the total 764 entries, 41 candidates were shortlisted for the competition

A version of this article appears in the print on June 24 2021, of The Himalayan Times.