The second edition of La.Lit’s Writing Nepal short story contest, judged by US-based Nepali writer Samrat Upadhyay, has been won by Pranaya Rana with his tale of a man obsessed, ‘In the hollow of your hands hides a heartbeat’. Writing Nepal 2015 culminated with the announcement of the winners on Tuesday, 4 August, at The Left Turn bookshop in Jhamsikhel, Lalitpur.

Pranaya Rana, Winner, Writing Nepal 2015

Despite the disruptions of the past months, our inbox had been flooded with over 100 submissions, and once more our judge had a tough task on his hands. A shortlist of seven had already been posted, and excerpts from each were read out to the eager audience massed at the venue. The winners were then announced by Samrat Upadhyay:

First place, Rs 10000: Pranaya Rana, ‘In the hollow of your hands hides a heartbeat’.

Second place, Rs 5000: Sumit Poudyal, ‘Shashi Neupane decides’, the humorous tale of a Nepali immigrant in the U.S.

Third place, Rs 2500: Abha Niraula, ‘The Paarijats will bloom’, a story of lost childhood innocence.

Honourable mentions:

Abhishek Shrestha (Swansong)

Shreeansh Agrawal (Phantasm)

Richa Pokhrel (The broken wings of an owl)

Jebin Gautam ( Mirroring memories)

La.Lit would like to congratulate the winners and thank all the participants. Our special appreciation to Samrat Upadhyay for judging the competition and sponsoring the prize money. Thanks also to The Left Turn for hosting this event. We’ll be posting the winning entries in the coming days, and hope to release an anthology of shorts early next year.

Photos by Nasala Chitrakar